


Shining Golden

by teainthetardiswithloki



Series: Things Tony Stark Shouldn't Be [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AUish, And angst, Angst, But its secret of course, Did I Mention Angst?, Humor, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, PTSD, Swearing, Tony!God, and cuddling?, and injuries, and loki-feels, and magic, and odin-feels, and tony-feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:21:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teainthetardiswithloki/pseuds/teainthetardiswithloki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Antonio was the god of cunning and intelligence. He invented things. He helped make Asgard better. The first time the bi-frost was destroyed Antonio had done it, done it for the Jotun, for Asgard, for Odin. In the process he fell, through realms that would send any ordinary mind insane, before landing hard in the still developing society of mortals living on the delicate crust of Midgard, a 17th century earth.</p><p>Tony Stark is the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Who was currently waking up with a hangover from drinking himself into a stupor after a pretty messy avengers fight.<br/>“Jarvis, lights” he groaned, sitting up.<br/>As the lights flashed on he looked around his room and at the sleeping body next to him. The male sleeping body. The male sleeping body with dark hair and very pale skin.<br/>“Oh fuck” he breathed</p><p> </p><p>  <strong><em>Note: This fic will be re-written and revised once other prompts for this series are filled</em></strong></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. So I have no idea where the idea for this came from, but I hope you like it. It is my first fanfic, so criticism is always good! Feel free to point out any typos or grammatical errors that I missed.  
> Enjoy!

Antonio was the god of cunning and intelligence. He invented things. He helped make Asgard better. When his fool of a best friend became war hungry, and king, well, he decided to intervene. The first time the bi-frost was destroyed Antonio had done it, done it for the Jotun, for Asgard, for Odin. 

Odin was a war hungry king, pushed on by the constant company of Thanos, he desired glory, and thought war the way to get it. Invading Jotunheim and taking their casket, before returning to Asgard, holding his spoils of war high above his head like they were something to be proud of. Antonio knew Odin planned to return to Jotunheim, and the only way to stop him was to destroy the bi-frost. But in the process he fell, through realms that would send any ordinary mind insane, before landing hard in the still developing society of mortals living on the delicate crust of Midgard, a 17th century earth. Keeping in the shadows he kept himself inconspicuous until he got bored. Creating an entire empire in a new family name, watching mortals hunt each other with his weapons and causing trouble in general, he kept himself occupied by making several tesseracts with his power, back-up reserves that came when he called, just in case something went wrong.

OOOO

Tony Stark is _the_ genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Who was currently waking up with a hangover from drinking himself into a stupor after a pretty messy avengers fight.

“Jarvis, lights” he groaned, sitting up.

As the lights flashed on he looked around his room and at the sleeping body next to him. The male sleeping body. The male sleeping body with dark hair and very pale skin.

“Oh fuck” he breathed, “oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck”, slowly getting out of bed so as not to wake the god of mischief lying beside him. 

Once out of his bedroom he asked in a strangled whisper “Jarvis? Did I sleep with the god of chaos last night?” 

“It would appear so sir” the AI deadpanned, equally quiet.

Tony groaned, sitting down on a bar stool and putting his head in his hands. He’d been so careful! So many centuries on Midgard and not a slip up yet, not for SHEILD, not for Thor, nor for any of his fellow avengers, and somehow the god in his bed had managed to pull him down. Tony only hoped he hadn’t revealed anything, nor used any magic in whatever had transpired last night,

With a sigh he rose from his seat and began to make breakfast. Why not right? The god of lies and chaos was sleeping in his bed, in the next room, naked, and he was making breakfast. He tried not to let out a half manic half hysterical laugh as he scrambled some eggs.

About half an hour later Tony heard footsteps and froze with his fork halfway to his mouth.

“Did you make enough for two?” came the silky voice from behind him

Oh Tony could practically hear the smirk on the tricksters face, quickly stuffing the fork in his mouth and chewing he replied, calmly pointing at the fry pan “help yourself”

The god of mischief walked around the bench, shooting Tony a grin, grabbing a plate and serving himself, before sitting gracefully on the stool in front of Tony’s.

They ate in silence, chewing the only sound apart from Loki’s occasionally snide remark. 

“What's the matter Stark?” Loki asked eventually, “No early morning banter? No insults?”

Tony looked up, finishing chewing slowly. “If I remembered how you ended up in my bed I might be more inclined to talk, but seeing as I don’t-“

He was cut off by the look of utter amusement that had developed on Loki’s face. They locked eyes and held for a moment, Loki’s amused, Tony’s very much not.

“Sir” came Jarvis’s voice, breaking the stare, “The other avengers are on their way up, I suggest Mr Lie-smith make himself scarce”.

Loki smiled, “I should do that, yes” Standing up from his stool he walked behind Stark, placing a hand on each shoulder before leaning down and purring in his ear, “Thankyou for a distracting and thoroughly enjoyable night Mr Stark”. Then with a flash of green he was gone, a slight chill in the air the only sign that he had ever been there.

He could hear the other avengers on their way up. “Jarvis, later I'm going to want the security footage of what happened, as I can’t remember a bloody fucking thing”

“Yes sir” came the amused voice, supposedly from the ceiling.

Tony muttered some curses in various languages, of inter-galactic varieties, before doing a quick spell to clear any trace of Loki’s magic, it wouldn’t do for Thor to notice anything, and then walking to his room to get in the shower. Just before he closed the door he heard Jarvis tell the others that Mr Stark was currently having a shower and that they would be welcome to make themselves comfortable in the lounge room until he returned. 

OOOO

An hour later and Tony was pacing the length of his living room, occasionally stopping to stare out the glass wall while the meeting went on behind him. 

“Look, Loki hasn’t tried anything in a long while, I think we need to be concerned” came Natasha’s voice from the background. The others all murmured in agreement, except for Thor.

“Perhaps my brother is resting, taking a break. He has been seen twice now at society galas, and one night club, perhaps he is just bored and finding various things to distract himself”

“Really?” came Hawkeye from the other side of the couch, “super villain gods would amuse themselves by going to society galas and night clubs? You know, some of the most boring places on the planet?” Tony heard Thor sigh and decided he had had enough, he wanted his tower to himself and he wanted to find out what happened last night god damn it! If his identity had been compromised he needed to know, right fucking now!

Spinning on his heel he exploded “All of you out!” Everyone turned to look at him stunned. “This does not need to happen in my penthouse, get back to SHEILD head quarters or one of your own floors, but for the love of god leave me in peace!” Tony was struggling to control hold temper, and therefore his magic. If his glamour dropped he was doomed.

Thor looked at him closer, his eyes in particular. Tony didn’t break the eye contact, schooling his face into an unreadable mask and controlling his magic.

“Man of Iron, are you well? You seem, off balanced” Thor stated slowly, cautiously.

“I'm fine” Tony snapped, “You lot woke me up, now kindly get out of my penthouse before I make Jarvis kick you out”

Steve stood up, anger on his face “Tony what the hell is wrong with you this morning?” he asked, “perhaps your latest bed mate kept you up, but we certainly did not wake you, there are leftovers in the sink on dirty dishes, you’ve had breakfast, so you must have been up awhile” the accusation ringing in Steve's tone.

“My love life has nothing to do with you Rogers, as much as I'm sure you’d want it too” Tony said, tone like ice, “but if you must know my lover and I had breakfast before they left. Now get out so I can think.”

The avengers all slowly stood, walking out like they thought Tony might rip their heads off if they made any sudden moves. Thor took longer than the rest, eyeing him the entire time, looking for something, what exactly Tony had a pretty good guess at. Tony schooled his magic and body language to the effect of complete boredom and stillness, so satisfied Thor finally retreated.

With a sigh Tony collapsed on his couch, picking up a computer tablet. “Jarvis, that security footage. Now” he muttered.

“Yes sir” came reluctantly from the AI as the footage of various rooms in Tony’s tower uploaded to the tablet.

The main footage was from the lounge room, and Tony didn’t even want to look at it again. The good side was he was not compromised, his cover completely intact. The bad side? He had shamelessly flirted and slept with the god of lies, Loki liesmith, fellow Asgardian and perhaps the best sorcerer Asgard had seen since himself. A sorcerer. Just his fucking luck. It was amazing that he had managed to keep his magic in check. Especially when it had been bedroom activities with another wielder of magic. 

His tipped his head, letting it rest on the back of the couch, scrubbing a hand over his mouth. That had been a close call; he couldn’t afford to be exposed to SHEILD right now, not with so many threats to the city cropping up so regularly. Where the fuck were all these new sadly under skilled super villains coming from anyway?

While Tony contemplated his own stupidity, because really, he’s old enough to know better, hundreds of eons old to be a little more specific, his mind had picked up a magic signature. His eyes snapped open, but that was the only sign he gave that he knew he wasn’t alone. With little effort he concentrated, and discovered that Loki had returned. Well. How fan-fucking-tastic.

Long pale hands slid over his shoulders, cool breath in his ear as they came to rest on his chest, either side of the reactor.

Tony felt a pulse of magic from those hands, cold reaching through him, into his chest, analysing the cursed shrapnel and the reactor.

“This device, it is not made by mortal sciences” came Loki’s voice softly, laced with curiosity and perhaps a hint of disbelief. 

Tony smiled, a small razor edged thing that would have any sane being backing away slowly and quietly. “Indeed it’s not. Now kindly get your hands off me before I throw you into a wall.”

The hands slid off him and Loki took two steps back. Tony stood and turned slowly, coming face to face with the liesmith, who was smirking.

“Sensitive issue Stark?”

Tony raised an eyebrow, expression the embodiment of sarcasm, “You know enough now, with that magic of yours, make your own conclusions.”

Loki laughed and Tony turned around, headed towards the bar. Filling a glass with a rather expensive scotch, one of the few strong drinks Midgard had to offer, Tony asked “So tell me, what did you find?”

Loki walked towards the bar, sitting in the stool across from Tony and watched him twirl his glass for a moment, before summoning his own and filling it to the brim. “The shrapnel in your chest, it is enchanted. A simple element created on Midgard would not be enough to keep those particles suspended where they are; an Asgardian has helped you to create that device. But it is run off magic itself. The stream of energy is constant, where you are getting it from I am yet to discover. Brilliant though. For a mortal, you have done well. Even considering the non-mortal help you’ve received”

Tony’s stared. He didn’t know, he hadn’t figured it out yet. He didn’t know where the magic was coming from. Maybe I should tell him, just to satisfy his curiosity Tony thought, that would truly be entertaining, and the cunning side of his brain had decided Loki having this particular knowledge could come in handy in the future. 

So Tony grinned, wide and unnerving. “Well done liesmith, I may be impressed with you yet.” Loki scowled and Tony laughed “In all honesty I'm a little disappointed you haven’t figured it out yet, because really, that projection of your magic through my chest should have told you-“

He was cut off, Loki had reached over the bar, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him clean off the ground.

“How dare you insult me!” Loki growled, low and vicious, “I am a god, I have the tesseract, and I could crush your skull with my bare hands!”

Tony only smiled, hand coming up to Loki’s wrist and _squeezing_. Tony let his fingers dig into the taller mans skin as Loki’s fingers came loose around his neck. 

“Watch yourself princess” Tony murmured softly, “I'm not someone you want to put your hands on, unless you want to lose them.” The last few words were louder than the rest, and Loki’s eyes widened slightly as Tony’s magic crept up his arm, a root like pattern of golden lines twining up to his elbow. By now Tony knew his eyes were rimmed with gold and gold tinged patterns were beginning to make themselves known on his skin.

Loki stared at him, shock evident on his face. Tony grinned, malicious and unguarded as he let Loki’s hand drop and sat back in his seat. Tony picked up his glass and took a sip, watching Loki the whole time, who was watching him.

“You are of Asgard” Loki stated, after several minutes of silence.

Tony raised an eyebrow, as if to say yes, duh, next point please.

“Who are you?” Loki asked, sounding like the words had been ripped from his throat unwillingly. Of course, the god of mischief did not like not knowing things  
Tony smiled, a giant shit eating grin.

“Well Loki, I dare say you’re smarter than your brother and actually read the history of Asgard yes? The proper history, I mean, not the glorified version Odin tends to favour.”

Loki nodded, a slight frown on his face. Tony could practically hear the gears turning in his head.

“I have a feeling my actions may have been somewhat of an inspiration for you” Tony said, “use the bi-frost to prevent war, and teach an unruly king, or king to be, a few lessons.”

Loki’s eyes widened and he asked “Antonio?” disbelief plain in his tone.

Tony grinned and mock bowed in his seat “Greatest sorcerer in the history of Asgard and Inventor God of Cunning and Intelligence, at your service.”

Loki stared. And stared. Tony picked up his glass and took another sip, a slight smile on his face. 

“But, you, you fell. Like I did. How, how are you not, insane, or dead or, I don’t know.” Loki sounded vulnerable. And very small. Tony’s grin softened to a smile.

“I landed here” Tony said softly. “I stayed out of the way of the mortals, until I got bored. And then I decided to make myself known to Midgard. I like making things with my hands rather than my magic, so, in order to create the technology, I needed money” he shrugged, and then smirked, “With my personality, how could they not love me? So I created a family legacy and put myself in it. This realm has offered me sanctuary for a long, long time. I did not appreciate you attempting to rule it.”

Loki looked at him, face carefully expressionless. Tony’s smile faded, and he cocked his head to the side. “Although,” he said quietly, “It wasn’t you was it?”

Loki’s head snapped up and his face pinched, usually green eyes flashing blue, perfect tesseract blue, “How did you-“

In a flash Tony was beside his stool, hands on either side of his head, looking inside his mind.

Loki threw up walls, but Tony ploughed through them, until he came to a soft glowing sliver in the back of Loki’s mind. He was dimly aware of the lie-smith muttering “No, Antonio, no please, stop, you can’t help” over and over but paid no attention as he examined the hold Thanos had on Loki’s mind. Tony felt a numbness, and then a roar as his hands reached out and pulled the hold Thanos had on Loki’s mind, he pulled, and pulled, with all the strength of his magic, before Loki fell backwards off the stool, and Tony collapsed to the floor.

“Fuck” Tony groaned, “Jesus he had you good, that mother fucker.” He looked up to see Loki curled up on the floor, tears streaming down his face and tremors rocking his entire body.

Tony looked for a bit. He knew this, he knew how to deal with it. He was an old man and Loki needed help. Loki needed comfort, understanding, Tony wanted to kill Odin personally. No person deserved to be told about the monsters of the world, only to find out that they were one, and then be controlled by the monster of the world. Loki needed someone to tell him they loved him and wrap him up in a hug and just hold him. And Tony though that maybe, one day, he might just do that, and in his very long life this would be one of the very few things he would not regret.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki passed out on his floor that night, so Tony carried him into his bedroom. The man was shivering so much that Tony actually began to feel concerned for his health. After asking Jarvis to up the temperature a few degrees Loki’s trembling began to slow as Tony took a seat in the chair beside his bed. 

“Thanos will be punished for this,” Tony muttered softly, “I will see to his death personally if I have too,” before he drifted off in the chair, waiting for Loki to recover.

OOOO

Loki woke with a groan, pressing a hand to his head. His mind felt… clearer, somehow. He looked for Thanos’s hold and couldn’t find it. He sat bolt upright as the memories from last night came to the forefront of his mind. He looked about frantically and realised that he was in Sta – no, Antonio’s bed. While examining his surroundings he heard soft breathing from his right and turned to see the god of intelligence asleep. In a chair. Hands crossed over his stomach and head lolling to the side. Loki snorted in amusement, no wonder he blended into Midgard so well, he didn’t present himself like a god, the stupid man. 

Loki continued to survey his surroundings and was slowly getting out of bed when Antonio, who to all appearances looked as though he was still sleeping, muttered “You can’t go yet. Your mind isn’t healed.”

Loki felt a rush of anger at those words, an automatic defence mechanism, “how dare you tell me what to do!,” he snarled, Antonio's eyes now open and focussed on the panicked face of the liesmith, “I’m just fine, and now I'm going to leave before you do any more damage!.”

He was on his way towards the door when the shorter man suddenly appeared in front of him. “You’re not going anywhere if I can help it,” Antonio snarled, “get your stupid ass back in that bed so you can sleep. Your mind needs to heal, and it will take time, you need another couple of hours rest at an absolute minimum, and so help me if I have to keep you there with magic, because I won’t hesitate, not for a minute.”

Loki looked at him, frozen by the thought that this god actually cared whether or not he was well, about the state of his mind. Antonio, taking advantage of Loki’s stunned silence, grabbed his shoulders, spun him around, and pushed him in the general direction of the bed. “Sleep. Now.” He said, so Loki went.

As Loki settled back under the covers he looked over to see Antonio sitting back in the chair. Loki frowned, “Why are you staying? Do you not have anything better to do then watch me heal?” he asked.

Antonio smiled, “At the moment no. And you cannot leave this floor anyway, because if you do one of the other avengers living in this building will probably blow your brains out with a gun. Or your brother will find you” Tony raised a sarcastic eyebrow, “which I'm assuming you don’t want just yet.”

Loki scowled, which made Antonio laugh quietly, “go back to sleep, he won’t find you, at least not while your recovering.” 

Loki settled down and closed his eyes. If this clearly insane god wanted to help him then so be it. He would just kill him for his trouble later when his power was fully restored to him. Loki frowned as some part of his mind flinched at the thought of hurting the man who had saved him. He quickly shoved that part of his brain down into a deep dark well; those thoughts were not things he wanted to dwell on.

 

Tony watched Loki’s face as the god frowned to himself. Tony had a fairly good guess as to why, but he wasn’t going to say anything. Loki’s mind needed to heal, and Tony was not going to say anything to interfere with that. Sure the god of mischief would probably try to kill him once he was back to full strength, but then Tony would just bind him with magic and send him off to his adoptive father in Asgard. Well. Maybe. That would involve telling Odin he was alive and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that yet. 

“Antonio?” came Loki’s voice from the bed. 

Tony looked up, “Just call me Tony please. I’ve become rather fond of it” he said with a smile.

Loki nodded and sat up, “Tony,” he frowned again before continuing, “How did you get him out?” he asked, “How in Odin's name did you do that? I tried, but he was so powerful, his magic, it was too much. I couldn’t fight him at all I -“

Tony could see that Loki was starting to panic, flash backs maybe, or just his mind still being so broken, “Hey, hey, it’s okay, shhh” Tony said quietly cutting through Loki's panicked rambling while climbing onto the bed. Loki stopped talking as Tony crouched in front of him, a hand cupping either side of the liesmith’s face, “You’re safe here” Tony said quietly, looking into his face. Loki's expression was so lost, vulnerable, “You’re safe okay? _He_ can’t get into your head anymore, and especially not while I'm here, you’re fine alright?” Loki nodded between Tony's hands, “Okay, good” Tony said quietly, he let Loki go and began to climb off the bed.

“Stay, Please.” It was so quiet that without his enhanced level of hearing Tony wouldn’t have heard it. He turned quietly at the foot of the bed to look at Loki. The liesmith wouldn’t meet his eyes. Tony knew he was uncomfortable, with his mind so cracked he was stripped of his masks and left bare for the older god to see, every little crack and fissure in Loki’s composure and psyche.

Tony sighed and climbed back onto the bed, sitting beside Loki with his back leaning against the headboard. 

“Okay” Tony said softly, “I’ll stay.” A look of relief flickered over Loki’s face before he laid down, turning so that his back was to Tony. A few minutes later and Loki was shaking beside Tony, silently crying by the looks of it. Tony reached out a hand to run it through Loki’s hair soothingly. The liesmith let out a pained whimper and the older god grimaced.

“Come here,” he said, but Loki made no sign that he was going to move. “Don’t be stupid Loki,” Tony said, exasperated, “you need it.” Loki rolled over to glare up at him. With a sigh Tony put a hand against Loki’s back and pulled him over, so that Loki’s head rested in his lap and the rest of him was curled around Tony’s legs. Tony ran a hand through Loki’s hair as Loki slowly relaxed, staring off into space as Tony comforted him.

Awhile later and Tony remember that Loki had asked him a question and decided that if the god wasn’t going to sleep Tony might as well talk. 

“You asked me about Thanos.” Tony said, and he felt Loki stiffen against him, and then nod slowly.

“Well,” Tony began, “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories. The three greatest warriors of Asgard from times long long ago?” Loki nodded, “Right, the three warriors consisted of the king to be, Odin, myself, and my twin brother Thanos. We were all incredibly powerful, and we had a lot of fun proving that to every single realm out there that even thought about posing a threat to Asgard. One day Thanos went bad, he got addicted to war. He got addicted to the killing, this was after I’d destroyed the bi-frost and fallen through the void mind you, so Odin, now a king without his sorcerer friend to consult, banished him. Stripped him of the majority of his magic and threw him into the void. By this time I had ended up on Midgard, I landed hard and was recovering in a forest on the continent of Africa. My brother through, he ended up with the Chitauri, as you know.” At this Loki shuddered and Tony pressed Loki closer against him, “I dare say by removing him from your mind he has lost one of his greatest assets. He still wants to conquer and destroy earth no doubt, but at least now it will take him longer, and in the mean time I can invent several things to help the fight when it comes.”

Loki pulled away and sat up beside him, “Thanos,” he said slowly, “Is your brother.” Tony nodded, “Then you are just as powerful as him, yes?”

Tony realised where this train of thought was going as Loki edged further away from him on the bed, bit by bit. He sighed. He was going to have to prove to Loki that he wouldn’t harm him, and that would probably take time, more time than either of them had to spare at the moment.

 _Loki_ Tony said, this time speaking in his mind, Loki jerked completely away from him until he was crouched at the foot of the bed, breathing heavily.

 _I will not hurt you._ Tony said, _Nor will I let him hurt you. Speaking to you this way means that you can feel the sincerity of my word, does it not?_

Loki looked away from him, his whole body trembling.

 _Your mind is not yet recovered. It will take a few days at least, but you know I will not harm you._ Tony stopped, looking at Loki, who had collapsed into a cross legged position at the end of the bed, watching him with terrified eyes. Tony did not want to know what his brother had done to put that expression on Loki’s face, to have ripped the trickster up and left him so vulnerable.

“You still have your glamour up Loki, as do I, but perhaps I can convince you by dropping other walls” Tony said, he knew Loki’s true form was that of the frost giants, blue skin and red eyes. Loki looked down and would not meet his eyes. Tony sighed, and pulled his legs up so that he was sitting cross-legged at the head of the bed. He knew there was only one way for Loki to trust him completely, so he let his walls down. He dropped his mental shields, every single part of his mind now visible and laid bare for Loki to see, just like Loki’s mind was to Tony.

 

Loki felt the slight pulse in the air that indicated a shift in magic and snapped his head up to stare at Tony. The older god was looking straight at him, his face carefully expressionless. 

“What did you just do?” Loki asked quietly, cursing the slight tremor in his voice that gave away his fear.

“My mind is now completely open to you, as yours currently is to me,” Tony replied, “If this is how I am to gain your trust so be it. The walls of my mind have been stretched to include you, you may look wherever you feel like you wish too.” Tony settled himself back against the headboard and closed his eyes, waiting patiently

Loki stared at him, not willing to believe it. A sorcerers mind was his greatest weapon; you did not open it to just anyone. Loki reached out with his mind until he came into contact with the beginnings of Tony’s. He heard the other man take in a deep breath as Loki moved through the forefront of his thoughts, looking at spells and other frivolous things. He passed through recent memories, through the part of the inventor’s mind which kept tabs on where all of the other avengers were in the building, the section of his mind full of spells keeping track of his daughter’s health in another realm and the plans and layout of all the buildings of Asgard. That gave him pause, he stopped and looked closely. The inventor god was connected to Asgard, the very stones of the buildings themselves longed for him to return, to feel his magic running through them. 

Loki opened his eyes and found that he had moved up the bed as he was now sitting directly in front of Tony, whose eyes were still closed.

“Your connection to Asgard, how is that possible?” Loki asked.

Tony’s eyes opened slowly, there was the beginnings of gold glowing around their edges, but not much. The inventor was struggling to hold onto his glamour, Loki realised with a shock. “When I destroyed the bi-frost the rainbow bridge absorbed the majority of the magic I had at the time, the buildings are full of it,” Tony answered, talking slowly, like his thought process had been slowed down, or perhaps as if he was lying, “The parts of Asgard that shine the brightest have a collection of magical residue from me. My magic burns gold, as yours burns green, that city is half mine and the land and buildings of the realm respond to my command whenever I ask it.”

Loki nodded, studying the inventors face, “Are you okay?” he asked tentatively. 

Tony smiled tiredly, “Yes,” he replied, “Just tired. You weren’t the only one who was exhausted by pulling Thanos from your mind, and you going through my head has only made it worse. My magic reserves are low.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Actually I probably just need to eat” he muttered.

Loki nodded slowly, trying to comprehend. This mad, completely insane, genius of a god had used up the majority of his magic reserves to help him, and then used even more pulling down his own walls just so that Loki would feel safe. Loki did not understand this madman, he was so old, and the god of intelligence at that, he should be smarter than to trust people so easily. He heard a snort of laughter and snapped his head up to see Tony smiling crookedly at him. 

“I’m perfectly aware that I'm insane, thanks. And you need to learn that there are some people who actually give a shit about what happens to you. You’re not completely worthless you know. Now common, I need food.” Loki stared at him in shock as he pushed himself off the bed and made his way out to the kitchen, while asking Jarvis to order some pizza. For breakfast. 

Loki shook his head, maybe this mad inventor did truly care about his health and well being, but trusting him? The man was insane, no one ever trusted Loki, hence the title god of lies. He shook his head again with an amused smile on his face as he followed the inventor god out to the kitchen, maybe staying with Antonio while he healed wouldn’t be a bad thing, he was the god of cunning and intelligence after all, perhaps Tony could help him figure out what on earth he was supposed to do about Odin, about Thor, where he now fitted into the scheme of things if he was no longer Thanos’ pawn. Perhaps he would find himself a place here with this mad genius. Hope was a stupid concept. But perhaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism is welcome. Feel free to tell me if I'm doing something wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, I wrote this chapter at 3am. I've checked it twice but if there are any typos or inconsistencies, let me know

Tony and Loki sat at the bench of the small kitchen on Tony’s private floor, devouring six pizzas. 

“So” Tony said between bites, “your grand plan for getting home, how is it going to work now?”

Loki stopped mid bite, startled, he hadn’t even thought about that yet. He settled for shrugging and continuing to eat while his brain raced. 

“Loki” Tony said from across the bench, getting his attention, “I could help you? Get home I mean. Obviously it wouldn’t be that hard” Loki stared at him, Tony grinned, “I have a plan.”

Loki laughed, recognising that look from when he and Thor used to cause trouble on Asgard, pulling pranks and creating schemes. 

Loki swallowed his pizza, leaning forward on the bench, “Go on then god of cunning” he said haughtily, “Amaze me.”

Tony smiled, “Well its simple really. You start a fight with the avengers, you let us win, we send you home with Thor and tada! Your home.”

“That sounds... almost too simple” Loki muttered, “What’s the catch?”

Tony raised an eyebrow at him. “There isn’t one” when Loki looked at him sceptically he continued, “Not everyone has hidden motives, and despite my reputation for being cunning, cunning does not equal heartless, or greedy. Think about it Loki, it would be easy, you would get to go home, Fury would get off my back and the avengers get some good publicity. Its win win for everyone.”

Loki thought on it for a few moments. It did seem like a good idea, and he could deal with the consequences of Thanos’ control over him when he got to Asgard. He looked up at Tony and couldn’t find any trace of a lie in his face. The older god was being completely honest with him. Well. Okay then.

“Alright, You’re on. I’ll take you up on your offer.” He said to a now grinning Tony

“Fantastic!” Tony said, rubbing his hands together, “So I figure if you make a bit of noise in the city, blow up a few trees, flip a few parked cars, that sort of thing, Fury will call us in to round you up. You fake fight us for as long as would seem sort of realistic, and then you feign injury, or exhaustion, we take you in, Thor beams you both home. How’s that sound?”

Loki nodded, “Well it sounds simple enough” he muttered, “Let’s hope it goes off without a hitch.”

Tony nodded, “Let’s hope. Oh, and no injuring or killing any bystanders in the process.”

Loki rolled his eyes, “I don’t kill people unless I really need to Tony. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’d better not” Tony muttered, getting up to put the left over pizza in the fridge, “Now go on, give it half an hour or so, go make some noise and then we shall come to apprehend you.”

Loki raised an eyebrow at him, “What’s the half an hour for?”

“Getting myself in a vaguely presentable order” 

Loki let out laugh, “Alright, fine. Go make yourself presentable.”

Tony grinned and went to turn away from him, but Loki reached out, lightly grasping his forearm. Tony turned around too look him with an eyebrow raised in question.

Loki opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He knows he should say something, he felt the need to say something to this god who had done so much for him in the past few hours.

After a short internal debate he settled on a simple “Thankyou.”

Tony smiled at him softly, “No problem Loki. Now go on. You have a job to do.”

Loki smiled and teleported out of the penthouse.

OOOO

Tony walked away, shaking his head. The young god was determined to return to Asgard, but seemed to have not thought through the fact that his punishment would be severe. Odin would not be forgiving. The man had destroyed half of a realm and, to all appearances, used a foreign army to attempt to rule another one, Odin was not going to be lenient. Tony knew he couldn’t let the trickster be punished for a crime he had not committed. The destruction of Jotunheim was not something that Odin could hold him for seeing as he had declared war on them more than once. Tony knew it would be the crimes against Midgard that Loki would be punished for, and of those charges he was innocent.

Tony thought quickly. If he was going to speak to Odin it would have to be in person, and currently he didn’t have time, so he settled for contacting Frigga. Frigga was the more understanding and reasonable of the two, she would hear him out through the mind without demanding physical evidence that he was, in fact, alive. He let out a snort of amusement; Frigga probably already knew he wasn’t dead. 

Making his way into his bedroom and settling himself cross-legged in the middle of the bed he set his mind out, searching trendils of magic reaching through the realms to Asgard before finding the queen.

_“I wondered how long it would take you to contact me” Frigga said, amused._

_“I am sorry about that”, Tony said, “but I have rather more important things to talk to you about right now.”_

_He felt Frigga’s mind focus completely on their conversation, “Antonio,” she asked, “What is wrong? What has happened? You are on Midgard are you not?”_

_“Yes, I am. This has to do with your adoptive son Loki”_

_“I see” Frigga said quietly, “You have seen him then?”_

_“Seen him? I took care of him for the past day or so. You eldest son will be returning to Asgard with Loki in tow sometime in the next few hours.”_

_“Oh, that is wonderful!” Frigga exclaimed, “After his punishment for what happen on Midgard is dealt with it will be lovely to have him home”_

_“That is exactly what I wished to speak with you about. Loki is innocent of the crimes committed against Midgard”_

_He felt Frigga’s mind fill with hope, “You have proof?” she asked_

_“Yes. Definitive proof” Tony said, He proceeded to show Frigga his memories of the night before when he pulled Thanos from Loki’s mind. By the end of the memory he could feel Frigga’s protective mother instincts come to the surface in regards to his brother using Loki._

_“Thanos needs to be punished for this” she said, voice deadly, Despite how nice the queen of Asgard seemed it did well for most not to be fooled. Under that she could be very very angry when need be._

_“I’m aware Frigga, I have been looking for him since I have known of his return to his powers. I am yet to find him.” Tony said, regretfully._

_“You must come to the trial Tony.” She said, her voice pleading, “Please. Odin will be hard pressed to believe the words if they come from Loki's mouth, he is not called Silver tongue for nothing. But if they come from you he may well believe them.”_

_“Frigga,” Tony said slowly, “Odin believes me to be dead does he not? Are you sure he will receive me with anything but suspicion?”_

_“Tony” Frigga said, a slight reproach in her voice, “He will be nothing but glad to have his good friend back. He missed you when you were first gone, and some days I know he still feels keenly the loss of his closest confidant. You will be received greatly, especially carrying the evidence of his adoptive son’s innocence.”_

_Tony laughed, “Well I suppose when you put it that way...”_

_“Exactly” Frigga said, a fond tone in her voice, “Come to the trial. I am sure Loki would appreciate it, Although you may have some explaining to do to Thor.”_

_Tony groaned and Frigga laughed in response. “Thankyou for this Tony.” She said, her voice grateful, “You have saved our family a lot of pain.”_

_“I will be there.” Tony says quietly._

Frigga cut the mental connection short and Tony groaned, falling back onto the bed. He was going to have to see Odin and reveal who he was to Thor. Along with talk an awful lot about his brother, whom he currently had no idea how to find, capture or contain. Fantastic. 

Muttering a few swear words he rolled off the bed and made his way towards the shower. According to the clock on the holographic computer wall in his bedroom he now had approximately fifteen minutes until operation get-Loki-home started. Well. This should be fun.

OOOO

The next 2 hours were spent in an entirely repetitive and boring ‘battle’ with Loki that had each of the avengers dodging spells that Tony knows were harmless and the occasional flaming tree or parked car. Eventually Loki ‘gave in’ and Tony snapped on the magic restricting hand cuffs. This had been the part of the plan that Loki wasn’t okay with, but had decided was necessary. The hand cuffs only contained a certain level of his magic, so he wasn’t completely powerless. But they were enough to make him uncomfortable. 

Loading Loki into the quinjet the other avengers all took their seats around the inside of the aircraft, Tony took off his helmet as an awkward silence fell over them. 

Loki’s mental voice drifted into Tony’s awareness _“Well. This is fun”_ Tony bit his lower lip to stop himself from smiling, _“Seriously, I think Barton may be sure of the fact that if he glares at me hard enough I might magically disappear.”_

Tony repressed the amused smirk that threatened to take over his face, _“Well you_ could _magically disappear, but that would be completely beside the point don’t you think? Besides its more likely that he’s day dreaming about putting an arrow through your eye socket.”_

Loki let out a soft chuckle at that, while Tony tried not to smile. The other avengers were looking at Loki wearily and he smiled as innocently as he could. Natasha snorted at his attempt and they all return to awkward silence. 

 

Loki looked around curiously as they moved him from the quinjet into Tony’s tower and into a room where director Fury was standing at the head of a table. 

“Well done boys and girls,” Tony snorted and Steve looked at him reproachfully, “Thor I don’t want to question your brother, I would just rather you take him home. Get him off earth as soon as possible”

Thor nodded and Tony caught Loki’s eye. The look they shared said it all. The scheme went completely to plan and it had surprised them both. 

Thor took his brothers arm, leading them into the elevator which leads up to the roof, accompanied by Steve and Tony. 

When they arrived at the roof Thor swung his hammer a few times, the lightening came and summoned both the princes back to Asgard. Steve huffed a barely audible “Thank god” before he disappeared inside.

Tony shook his head at the super solider before flying down to the landing pad on his penthouse floor. As the rings spun and his machines removed the armour he realised that he probably had very little time before he needed to be on Asgard. 

Making his way inside Tony said “Jarvis call Pepper for me.”

“Sir Miss Potts is currently in an executive board of directors meeting. I suggest she not be disturbed.”

Tony sighed. Of course she was in a meeting. She was always in a meeting. Granted she did run his company.

“Okay Jarvis, leave her a message. Tell her that I’ll be gone for a couple of days, I have a trip to make. I’ll be completely off the radar.”

“Very good sir” Jarvis replied. 

With that out of the way, so Pepper didn’t start fretting when she couldn’t contact him, Tony took a deep breath. It’d been a long time since he was in Asgard. 

Standing in front of the mirror in his bedroom he slowly dropped his glamour so that his eyes shone gold and some of his marking were visible on his skin, but only just, only enough for him to be recognised and therefore left to go wherever he pleased. With another long exhale he summoned his Asgardian dress, his gold and black leather wrapping around him like a familiar skin. His weapons belt appeared around his hips, his sword a comfortable and familiar weight on his side. He didn’t realise how much he had missed this. It had been a long time since Tony was truly Antonio of Asgard. Tony opened his eyes and grinned at his reflection. Long black leather tunic and breeches, with various golden and red buckles and straps and his personal made sword, forged in the heart of a dying star, a twin to the hammer that Thor now carries. With a few muttered words the inventor god felt himself being pulled through the void into the magics of Asgard.

OOOO

Tony walked through the halls of Asgard, revelling in the feel of the stones under his feet singing at his return. The gold in them swirled to meet where the soles of his boots touch the stone. It was difficult not to stop and just press his hands against the stone. To feel that magic surge through him, making him feel so alive, so full of energy. But no, he was here with a purpose and that was his first priority. Frigga had told him that the trial was to be a private one, and that it would commence in the great hall. He was already late. But he knew that Odin would give Loki a chance to defend his actions first and that was what Tony was counting on to make up for lost time.

As he reached the huge golden doors with the familiar pattern of Yggdrasil, the tree of life, adorning their front he paused to take a breath before pushing them open. 

It seemed Odin was in the middle of asking Loki if he had any defence. Odin did not even look away from his adoptive son, only saying a curt “This is a private trial. Leave”

Tony raised a brow as the guards in the room moved towards him, it took a moment but when they seemed to recognise him they paused, hesitating. He smiled at them, waved them off and they backed down. Before he fell Tony was on par with Odin power wise, the people respected him as something of a deputy king and it seemed that the respect remained. As Tony further entered the room, his footsteps alerted Odin to the fact that he still remained. 

“I said this is a private trial” the king growled out, “and I asked you to leave.” He still hadn’t looked at Tony. 

Frigga stepped up beside Odin. “My dear, give him a moment I-“

“I said this was to be a private trial. That means NO INTRUP-“

Tony interrupted him midsentence, “Sorry old friend, but I have some evidence you need to hear.”

At the sound of his voice Odin snapped his eyes to him, the one not under the patch going wide and his hand tightening on his staff. Tony distinctly heard Thor gasp and flicked a smirk in the direction of the now startled thunderer. 

“Hello Thor.” He said, “Now Odin I-“

“HOW DARE YOU!” Odin rather loudly interrupted, “YOU DESTORYED THE BI-FROST AND WE THOUGHT YOU DEAD! YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE IN – “

“Oh for god’s sake man you know why I did what I did!” Tony cut in, “It worked didn’t?! Now I know you don’t want to punish your adoptive son and I have some evidence which means you won’t have too. Because I can prove he is innocent of the crimes his is charged with against Midgard, and if you have the nerve to convict him for what he did to Jotunheim, so help me I will come up there and stab out your other eye.”

Him and Odin stared at each other for a moment, Loki’s kneeled form on the floor between them before Odin made his way down from the throne at the front of the room, around Loki to stand directly in front of Tony, placing a large hand on his shoulder.

“Antonio. Old friend. You really have solid evidence that he is innocent? Evidence that I can present to the general populace?”

“Indeed.” Tony said. He looked around Odin at Loki, “Loki, come here.” Loki stood, turning to look at them, suspicion on his face. Tony rolled his eyes, “Oh common princes,” he muttered, “I’m going to have to use your memories as well as mine you know.” 

Loki huffed an indignant sigh and Odin raised an eyebrow at the nickname. “Princess?” Thor asked from the other side of the room, amusement in his voice. 

“Shut up you idiot” Loki muttered at him, Tony chuckled softly.

When Loki reached him Tony looked him dead in the eye, “You’re still okay with me reaching into your head?” he asked softly, Loki looked at him a moment before nodding. Tony placed two fingers against Loki’s temple and murmured a few words. Odin watched in interest as Tony withdrew a copy of the memory of the removal of Thanos from Loki’s head, a trendil of green following Tony’s fingers as he pulled them away from the skin at Loki’s temple. He did the same with his own memories and then combined the two, placing them in a small flask taken from his belt.

He handed it to Odin. “Frigga can project those memories. But in short the whole situation is the fault of my brother”

Tony watched as Odin’s face went carefully expressionless, and he heard Thor let out a soft “Fuck” from beside his mother up on the throne level.

“My brother found him in the void, took him in and used his mind to his advantage. Loki was unable to stop it or remove the influence. You know how strong my brother is, and he has been exiled long enough now to have regained his full strength. I fear the worst is yet to come.”

Odin nodded his head, glancing up at his wife, “I shall watch these memories tonight. Loki until further notice you are cleared of your charges,” the handcuffs disappeared with a click and Loki flexed his wrists, “Antonio your old chambers are exactly as you left them if you wish to stay.” Odin said, something close to hope in his voice. 

Tony nodded. “I will stay for a few days at least, but any longer and I will be missed on Midgard.” With an embrace to Odin, a smile at Frigga and Thor and an even softer smile at Loki Tony disappeared in the direction of his long abandoned rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I apologise. It's a bit messy, as I said, 3am. But I hope it made sense. Next chapter in a few days.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's short, I know. But its a vital in-look into Tony.

Tony followed the familiar halls of Asgard down to his chambers. He took a deep breath, apprehensive as to what he would feel seeing these – his – rooms again. With a push he opened one of the giant double doors leading into his chambers. A muttered spell and fire sprung from his palm, up to the giant chandelier on the roof and the various other light fixtures about the rooms.

Tony looked around, aside from a thick layer of dust, which he quickly cleared with a flick of his wrist; his rooms were as Odin had said they would be, exactly as he had left them. 

Tony grinned, walking into the room and surveying his surroundings. Following the walls of the main room, which contained a large bed and wardrobe, he let the magical build up in the walls rush to meet his hand. He released a content sigh as he moved into his library, the other end of the same library he had access too in the tower. With a smile he walked back through the main room and into the Asgardian equivalent of a bathroom which branched off the opposite side to the library.

The room was large, a huge in-ground bath in one corner, complete with steaming water that had filled when Tony lit up the room. In the opposite corner was a large mirror with shelving that was recessed into the wall. Everything was gold, silver, red and black, just like the rest of his chambers, which matched his Asgardian attire.

Tony simply banished his clothes to a folded pile on the floor with a thought and lowered himself into the large steaming bath with a sigh of relief. The whole trial had him tense. Discussing his brother, revealing himself to Odin and extracting memories had his muscles all wound up, tension stringing them taught along his shoulders and back. 

Tony sat in the bath, the water never cooling, letting the warmth work out the tension in his muscles. Once he felt completely relaxed he rose from the bath, drying himself and summoning a loose pair of pants to sleep in with a flick of his wrist.

Exiting the bathroom he flopped face first onto the bed, letting out a groan of satisfaction. He’d forgotten how amazing the beds on Asgard were, seeming to melt around him, soft and comfortable. As he laid there he could feel Loki hovering outside his door.

“If you’re not going to come in,” Tony said, still face down on the bed, “Then please stop hovering. Its concerning.”

Tony heard the giant doors open and rolled onto his back to see that Loki had opened one of the doors and was now leaning against the other, arms crossed, attempting to appear calm and nonchalant and failing miserably. The tension was plain to see in the set of his shoulders.

Tony simply quirked an eyebrow at him and Loki sighed, pushing himself off the door frame with his shoulder and entering the room.

Tony could practically feel the agitation flowing off Loki in waves, so he patted the bed beside him in invitation. Loki took a step forward and then hesitated, a frown taking over his face.

“Antonio, I, when we slept together. You were drunk, I, well, I don’t think. Look – “

Tony could see the trickster struggling to come up with words, his usually silver tongue turned to lead, he had even referred to Tony by his given name. 

Tony sat up and calmly interrupted, voice soft, soothing. “Loki, I may have been drunk but just because I’m not now doesn’t lessen my,” he paused, considering his words “affections, I guess you could call them, towards you.”

Loki drew in a quick breath at that and Tony patted the bed beside him again, “You want to talk to me Loki, all we will do is talk, okay?”

Loki nodded and finally made his way over to the bed, sitting down beside him. Tony watched as Loki opened his mouth, and then closed it again, opened, closed, like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how. Tony reached out grasps his hand, squeezing lightly, which made Loki look up at him. Tony cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows, hoping the physical contact gave Loki whatever confidence he needed to say whatever it was he needed to say.

“Tony, I was wondering,” Loki said, voice very quiet, “if when you return to Midgard. If, well, can I come with you?”

Tony looked at him for a moment before moving his hand from Loki’s grip to reach up and hold the side of Loki’s neck, a strangely intimate gesture, and he watched as the tricksters eyes closed and he leaned into the contact of Tony’s hand with a barely audible sigh.

Tony smiled and said quietly, “Yes Loki. Of course you can.” Loki opened his eyes, looking into Tony's face and the next moment Tony found himself with a lap full of liesmith as Loki moved to sit in-between his legs, pressing his lips frantically against Tony’s.

The kiss only lasted a split second, with Loki letting out a sound like a pained whimper against Tony’s mouth before rolling off Tony and moving quickly to stand beside the bed. 

“I shouldn’t have,” he said quietly, body shaking slightly, “I did not mean too, I-“

“Loki,” Tony said, opening his arms, “get your ass back here. Now.” 

Loki hesitated again and some of the puzzle pieces that make up Loki clicked together inside Tony’s head as the older god had a bit of a ‘light bulb’ moment. 

His voice was much softer when he said “Loki, if you feel your mind is too vulnerable right now we won’t do anything. But please, I would like to have you with me tonight.”

Loki seemed to stand there, contemplating him with an expression of confusion, for much longer than necessary before climbing onto the bed beside Tony. 

Tony muttered a few words and then they were both under the covers, Loki quickly scooting closer to Tony and curling up in his arms, head resting on Tony’s outstretched arm and an arm flung around the inventors waist. 

As Loki fell asleep against him Tony couldn’t seem to find his rest. His mind was busy with so many thoughts, most of them about the god curled up in his arms. Tony was very quickly realising that he needed Loki just as much as Loki needed him. The next few months were going to take their toll mentally and physically, and without Loki by his side Tony wasn’t sure he’d make it. Emotionally the great sorcerer of Asgard was just as damaged as Loki is, being alive for as long as he has will do that too a person. 

So Tony tightened his arms slightly around the sleeping form, rested his chin on top of Loki’s head and finally drifted off to sleep, quieting his brain by thinking positive thoughts, like the fact that Loki was coming home with him, to live in the tower. And he would be there for Tony to figure out and admire and generally make himself more vulnerable to for what would hopefully be a long time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short again, I know I know. I'm sorry, I have limited internet access and therefore a limited time period to finish stuff :/ After this week they'll be longer, promise :)

Tony woke to a loud knocking on his bedroom doors. 

Loki groaned and snuggled closer as Tony yelled “come in!”

The door opened to reveal Thor, already dressed in his usual Asgardian attire, minus the armour. The thunderer strode into the room, “Antonio, father wishes to speak with you about…”

Tony watched in amusement as Thor’s voice trailed off as his brain finally registered that Loki was in the same bed, snuggled into Tony’s side.

Loki looked up, glaring at his brother, “I was asleep Thor” he growled out. Thor’s eyes flicked between the two of them a few more times before his expression settled into a fond smile.

“We are breaking fast in an hour or so, father wishes to speak to you Tony.” Thor paused, giving him a hard look, “as do I.”

Tony nods, “Of course Thor. We’ll be there in time.”

“We?” Loki asked

“Mother did say I was to fetch you too Loki.” Loki groaned and buried his head into Tony’s side. Tony ran a hand slowly through the liesmith’s hair, before looking back up at Thor

“We’ll both be there Thor.”

Thor nodded, looking between the two of them again before leaving, a fond smile fixed on his face. 

Tony went to move, he needed to shower before they went for breakfast, but as he went to roll out of bed Loki’s grip tightened on his waist, pinning him in place. So Tony rolled the other way until he was sprawled quite comfortably over the top of the liesmith, resting his forearms on either side of Loki’s head, bringing their faces mere inches apart.

“You are a nuisance you know that?” Tony muttered, “We need to be on time, which means I need to get up.”

Loki only smiled at him, putting a hand at the back of his neck. They did nothing for a moment; just simply looked at each other, before Loki used his grip to pull the older god’s mouth down to his.

The kiss started soft, before quickly turning frantic. Loki’s hands reached down to grab Tony’s ass, pulling them closer together. The action pulled a groan from Tony, which effectively resulted in his mouth opening to Loki’s tongue and Tony becoming completely pliant against him. Loki used that to his advantage, rolling them over so that he was now straddling the inventor’s hips.

Tony pulled back and Loki moved his mouth lower, sucking on Tony's neck, right over his pulse point. 

“You,” Tony said, breathless, as he arched into the soft scrap of teeth against his skin, “Are too damn distracting.” Tony felt the trickster smile against his neck, before moving his mouth lower to brush along Tony’s collar bones.

“Seriously,” Tony gasped out, “We need to get up.” While his brain was trying to focus on things like needing to get out of bed his hands had slipped under Loki’s loose night shirt to travel over the flat stomach and leanly muscled back.

Loki pulled back to admire his handiwork, a few bruises littering the inventors throat, before moving up to brush his lips against the shell of Tony’s ear as he spoke, voice pleased and a little mischievous, “I dare say you do not actually wish to go anywhere.”

Getting a tight grip on Loki’s waist Tony flipped them again, pinning Loki’s hands above his head.

“I have to sit across the table from your parents in half an hour, and no doubt explain this too them as Thor has probably said something. Getting up so neither of us looks like we’ve been making out in bed is a good idea.”

Loki only smirked up at him before bucking his hips up against Tony’s, brushing their arousal against each other and drawing a gasp from them both at the friction.

“Fuck” Tony breathed, pushing his lips against Loki’s again before his brain caught up with him, chanting things like breakfast in half an hour and Odin is going to shoot me. With a reluctant sound he pulled off Loki, rolling off the bed.

 

Loki swallowed a groan at the loss of contact, looking up at Tony who was now standing beside the bed, his erection plain to be seen in the loose bed pants he wore. 

“You are fucking distracting” Tony said, looking at him with eyes whose pupils were blown dark with lust, only the bright gold ring around his iris visible, “At this rate we’ll be late.”

“Mmmm.” Loki mummered, sprawling himself out on the bed invitingly and looking up at Tony with a coy smile on his lips, deliberately making himself look as tempting as possible.

Loki watched as Tony narrowed his eyes, and then felt a momentary panic as trendils of magic wrapped around his waist and ankles. With a flick of Tony’s wrist Loki was suddenly upright, pressed flush against the inventor whose hands were now holding his waist. The older god reached up, pushing their lips together in a kiss, much softer than before. Loki tensed at the affectionate gesture before returning the kiss and hesitantly settling his hands on Tony’s shoulders. The inventor pulled back, leaning their foreheads together with a hand at the back of Loki’s neck, keeping his head angled down.

“Later I will have you” Tony muttered, smiling, and oh the things that smile promised, “but right now we have a breakfast to make ourselves presentable for.” He pressed another light kiss to Loki’s mouth before disappearing into the washroom. 

Loki stood there watching Tony go, trying to think. The mad genius wanted him, at least physically. But that last moment, that was so tender, affectionate even. 

Loki frowned at himself. It had been a long time since he’d had feelings like this, affection. But Tony had said himself before they fell asleep last night, he had called his feelings towards Loki affections too. That implied more than just an attraction to his body. Loki turned, summoning clothing to replace his sleeping attire, trying to shut off his brain. These weren’t thoughts he needed to have right now, he didn’t need to be thinking about whether him and Tony were now a permanent thing, or if they were just a fling. Tony was known on Midgard for his flings, for being a playboy. But Loki thought this time with him was different, if Tony only wanted a fling he would have taken what he wanted. He hadn’t left Loki yet, and didn't that thought just stop the liesmith cold. He hadn’t left. Everyone always leaves, and yet Tony willingly sought out his company, willing came to Asgard to present evidence at his trial and stop him from being punished. 

Loki’s thoughts came to a complete halt as Tony walked out of the washroom, wearing his casual Asgardian attire. He was dressed in a loose long sleeved t-shirt and plain black pants, with black boots. On the shirt the laces at the top were undone to just above where the arc reactor glowed dully, revealing the fresh bruises left along his throat. The shirt was black with various gold accents, which matched the gold ringing the older god’s irises. He looked attractive, more so than any Aseir had a right too in their regular day clothes, it suited him just as well as his mortal clothing did.

Tony walked towards him, taking his hand and leading him out of the room and into the hall, a smile on his face.

“Common princess,” Loki rolled his eyes at the nickname, which has obviously stuck, “We have a breakfast to attend.” 

 

OOOO

 

As they walked into the breakfast room, hands still clasped, the last of the food was being laid out on the table, places spare for Loki and Tony with already full plates waiting for them. Tony watched as Odin’s eyes flickered from their joined hands to their faces, his expression carefully blank. Tony knew Odin was going to want to discuss this in private, but right now they needed to talk about Thanos.

“I watched the memories you gave me yesterday Antonio.” Odin said when he and Loki had taken their seats, “Your brother has done great damage and I have officially added the charges originally for Loki to his long list of crimes.”

Tony nodded in response, swallowing his bite of meat before talking.

“I am in the process of extending my magic through the nine realms to locate him. I haven’t found him as of yet, but I will. When I do I will do my best to capture him. His plans to destroy or rule Midgard are still in place I believe.” Tony said.

Frigga, Odin and Thor all nodded, “Then perhaps your presence on Midgard is a good thing” Frigga said, “You can feel Thanos’ magic better than anyone, with you on the realm we can at least anticipate his action long enough to get some warriors and protective spells in place.” 

Thor nodded his agreement and they finished the rest of their breakfast in silence. When they were done Frigga announced that she had some reading in her library to do and left them.

When she was gone Thor turned to Tony with a confused look upon his face.

“I confess, I am unsure as to why you did not tell me who you were when we first met,” he said, a frown on his brow.

Tony studied his expression, “Thor you are not the best actor in the world, and the options to you discovering who I was were either you running to your father to tell him of my well-being and my location, or you attempting to arrest me for my ‘crimes’. I didn’t like the sound of either of those, and can you honestly disagree with me?”

Thor looked as if he was about to protest, but then stopped to think before nodding his agreement.

“I suppose you are correct. But why did you not tell father that you were alive as soon as you emerged from the void?” Thor asked.

“Thor.” Odin said, voice stern, “I would ask that you and your brother leave us now. I wish to speak to Antonio alone.”

Loki, who had been quiet throughout the whole of breakfast looked to Tony in concern. Tony met his eyes and nodded, knowing that Loki would be waiting just outside the door for him. As the brothers left Odin also rose from his seat and moved to stand near the large opening in the far wall, gazing out upon his city. 

Tony followed him, standing by his side, patiently waiting.

“How long did you fall for before you emerged from the void?” Odin asked, his voice very quiet. There were few people whom the King of Asgard spoke quietly in front of, and Tony tried to decipher whether his tone was hurt or angry, or perhaps both, as he answered.

“A few centuries at least I would say. Time passes differently in the void.”

Odin nodded, and then turned, facing Tony directly. Tony sucked in a breath at the expression on Odin's face. The king looked very tired, gazing at his old friend with an expression that looked like a combination of exasperation and hurt. 

“Why did you not come home?” he asked, taking a step closer, “I needed you, and you didn’t return. I mourned you.”

Tony took a deep breath, turning to look Odin directly in the eye as he spoke, “You needed to rule on your own,” Odin looked as if he was about to protest, and Tony put up a hand to silence him, “No. Let me finish. You needed to learn to rule on your own. Make your own decisions, to not rely on my standing among the people of Asgard to get things done. You also needed to fight your battles without my magic to assist you. Admittedly Midgard was also my escape. Once I had healed I found the realm to be fast paced, cultured, always changing. It interested me and so I stayed.”

An expression of understand came over Odin's face, “You did always find Asgard boring, stagnant, with no one to keep up with you intellectually or in your unique way of conversing and causing trouble without being noticed.” Odin paused, looking him directly in the eye, “He did remind me a lot of you. Still does.”

Tony smiled softly, “He does keep up with me. It’s a level playing field. We’ve also both been through the torture of the void and the realms beyond it.” 

Odin smiled “You understand one another well. You will be good for each other I think.”

Tony grinned, “You’re not going to gouge my eyes out then?” he asked, amusement in his tone.

Odin laughed, “No. Not unless you harm him.”

Tony’s smile softened at that, “I don’t intend to hurt him. I would like to help heal him, even though I am just as broken as he is, perhaps we can help each other.”

“Do you love him?” Odin asked, and the question took Tony off guard, because he honestly had no idea.

“I, well, I honestly don’t know. But I think that in a small amount of time I certainly will. He has, affected me. I cannot lie to him, nor him to me. My masks mean nothing if it’s him I'm talking too. He affects me in a way no one else ever has.”

Odin nodded, “Good. Then you have my blessing for whatever it is that may happen between you.”

Tony laughed softly, and Odin continued, “Granted you don’t need my blessing or permission, neither of you do, but I feel better having given it.” Tony grinned at him and Odin continued, amused now, “You haven’t changed at all you know. Perhaps a little more closed off and a little more rough around the edges, but you’re still you.”

Tony smiled and Odin took a step forward, catching Tony in a unexpected hug. Tony laughed softly, returning the gesture before pulling back. 

“I am angry at you about one thing.” Tony said, expression hardening “Your keeping of Loki's true form from him has damaged him. He is unsure of his place on Asgard now and feels even more keenly that he is different.” 

“I know now keeping it from him was wrong.” Odin said, regret in his voice, “I hope that one day he will come to trust me again.”

Tony’s expression softened, “Perhaps one day he will.” He said and Odin smiled at him before putting his hand out, offering the Asgardian approximation of a handshake, and perhaps a peace offering.

Tony accepted, taking hold of the other mans forearm and shaking twice. When he let go he said “Loki as asked to come home to Midgard with me. I have plenty of space for him and have no aversions to the idea what so ever, so I said yes.” Odin nodded and Tony continued, talking while he could as he knew getting this quiet moment to speak with the King was a rare thing, “We will be leaving later today.”

“So soon?” Odin asked.

“Yes. Apart from the woman who runs my company, Pepper, no one else knows where I am and I will begin to be missed.”

Odin nodded and grasped his shoulder, “Come and say goodbye before you go.” Tony nodded his acknowledgement and they both left the room, going separate ways once they hit the corridor.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this update is a bit late I know but this chapter is a bit longer, and I deeply apologise for the poorly written smut that awaits you

After a quick goodbye to Thor, Odin and Frigga the long-lost but now found sorcerer and adoptive prince of Asgard made their way back to Midgard, re-appearing in Tony’s penthouse level of the tower with a flash of golden light.

Tony turned to Loki, and just as he opened his mouth to suggest something of a deviant nature his phone ringed, the ringtone belonging to the one and only, director Nicolas Fury.

With a sigh Tony pulled his phone from his pocket and put it up to his ear.

“Where the fuck have you been Stark?!” came the yelling voice of the director down the phone, “You went completely off the radar, your CEO wouldn’t tell me where you’d been and a situation has just broken out downtown.”

“What sort of situation?” Tony asked, flicking a glance at a now amused Loki.

“Downtown New York is currently being toppled over by giant hamsters.”

Tony choked on air, “I’m sorry, did you say – “

“Giant hamsters, yes.” Fury interrupted, “May sound cute but they’re causing an awful lot of property damage, so get your ass out there with the rest of the team and round them up.”

Fury hung up and Tony stared at the phone incredulously for a moment before looking to Loki, who seemed as if he was trying extremely hard not to laugh.

“Giant hamsters huh?” Loki said, biting his lip.

“How the fuck is this my life?” Tony muttered, turning around and making his way up to the workshop and his suits, to the sound of Loki’s now full-bellied laughter.

 

OOOO

 

“If I ever find the idiot who thought it was a good idea to make hamsters giant I am going to kill them. An arrow through the eye socket should do it.” Tony laughed as Clint muttered over the comms. Hawkeye had had the bad luck to be caught behind one of the hamsters, and had consequently been covered in shit. Literally. A hamster had shat all over him. Tony had almost fallen out of the sky his laughing had mucked up his flight pattern so much.

Once all the hamsters were rounded up and herded into trucks, Tony using his magic to rope some of them towards the shield vehicles discreetly, the team all gathered together.

“So,” Steve said, “Does this warrant a victory take-out session?”

“Yes. Yes it certainly fucking does.” Clint replied, “I’m going to need therapy, I swear to god.”

The others all laughed and decided to meet up at the tower, 

“I think I’ll skip the victory feast guys,” Tony said, “I’m in the middle of something in the workshop, so I’ll see you all when I emerge”. With a wave and an exasperated sigh from Natasha and Steve Tony was off. He spent the flight listening to the others allocating Bruce and Steve the job of picking up some Thai for all of them on their way back to the tower and thinking about Loki.

That was until he realised just how tired he felt. Tony could feel his muscles beginning to weaken, the first sign that he was on the verge of over-exerting his magic. As he got closer to the tower he could feel his thoughts becoming fuzzy and when he got to the workshop after removing the suit he collapsed into a chair.  
Two inter-dimensional trips in a week shouldn’t have made him this tired Tony thought, and then he remembered that for the past week his magic had been extended throughout the realms searching for his brother. So far he had only combed 4 of the 9 realms for even the smallest trace of his brother’s magic, and those 4 were closest to Midgard, the other realms would require a larger portion of magic and energy.

Tony knew he should go and find Loki, but he just didn't have the energy. Hauling himself to his feet the sorcerer stumbled his way towards a seemingly blank wall of the workshop. It opened to reveal his Asgardian library. The same one he had access too in Asgard, a whole dimension dedicated to his books, his knowledge, his magic, his inventing and his escape. 

He collapsed onto a couch, letting himself fall face first over the arm rest to flop down onto the cushions, curling his legs in slightly so that all of him fitted on the couch.

For a moment he was surprised that Loki hadn’t come to find him, he must have seen him fly up the building to the workshop, but then he drifted into sleep.

 

“Sir?” came Jarvis’ voice, drifting him into consciousness.

“Hmm, what, what is it?” Tony muttered, still face down on the couch.

“Mr Liesmith appears to be in your workshop looking for you.”

Tony lifted his head off the couch so Jarvis could hear him more clearly, “Right, let him in.”

“Sir, may I remind you that Loki Liesmith is on Shield’s-“

“Jarvis,” Tony interrupted, “just let him in.”

“As you wish Sir.” Tony frowned to hear that his AI sounded more slightly disapproving. Hmm, perhaps he did use too much magic making Jarvis sentient.

Tony heard Jarvis telling Loki that he will find Tony in the library before a wave of dizziness hit him and he groaned quietly, pushing his face deeper into the couch cushion. So he still felt like shit. Fantastic.

“Tony?” Loki called out questioningly

“Over here” Tony muttered into the couch, but he knew Loki would hear him, he was not very far away anyway, just behind one row of books on one of the couches after the giant workspace.

He heard Loki’s footsteps approaching and then stopping beside the couch. Tony rolled over so he could look up at the liesmith, who was smirking down at him.

“Giant mutant hamsters were really that tiring?” Loki asked

“Shut up you twat.” Tony huffed, sitting up and combing a hand through his hair. No dizziness at being upright, well, that was progress, “I’m completely exhausted after using so much magic in the past week, I'm allowed to collapse into my couches whenever I feel like it, my magic resources aren’t endless you know.”

He watched as Loki’s brow furrowed in an expression of concern and quickly decided that he needed to change the subject, before the trickster realised just how exhausted he was. Only barely holding onto his glamour, there wasn’t enough for his subconscious to conceal his eyes anymore.

“So how to do you like my library?” Tony asked, keeping his eyes down as he felt his glamour fade from them completely, and in the next blink his brown irises were rimmed with a burning gold.

Tony stood slowly and Loki didn’t notice the slight sway as the liesmith turned in a slow circle, surveying the seemingly endless space.

“It is… impressive.” He said, “But what I find even more impressive is the fact that the entrance to this place is a door placed in a wall which leads to open outside city space, several tens of storeys up.”

Tony chuckled, “It’s a whole other dimension. Learnt that trick from an old friend of mine, Time Lord from Gallifrey called the Doctor.”

Loki smiled, “He is a famous man that one.” 

“Oh I know.” 

Tony watched as Loki looked at his face, and did a double take at his eyes before examining the older god closely. Tony knew that the trickster knew that for his glamour to be down, even partially, he must be more exhausted than he was letting on.

Tony felt his eyes widen as he blinked and his body swayed slightly, a wave of dizziness overcoming him.

Loki reached out to grasp his forearm, suddenly standing right in front of Tony, a frown on his face and concern in his tone as he said the inventor’s name.

Tony couldn’t quite hear him properly, like his ears had been stuffed with cotton wool. Another wave of dizziness hit him and Tony lifted a hand to his head, attempting to blink away the black spots in his vision.

A few seconds later and his knees buckled, his body sagging forward and Loki caught him before he could fall too far.

“Tony?” he asked again, his voice sounding strained as he moved his arms to better support the smaller god.

“S’fine,” Tony muttered, “I did say I was exhausted.” He felt Loki slip a hand down under his knees and the other supported his shoulders as Loki lifted him clean off the ground, bridal style.

Tony made a token noise of protest but Loki didn't let him go, simply teleporting them into Tony's bedroom before settling Tony on the bed.

“Tony,” Loki said quietly, sitting beside Tony’s now curled up form on the bed, “What can I do?”

Tony stayed quiet, just curling further in on himself. Frankly he felt like shit, worst he’d been in awhile, because despite being an immortal sorcerer he still ran low on magic occasionally, and it had been awhile since he’d consumed one of the Golden Apples of Idunn’s garden that keep the Aseir immortal. A few centuries at least, which was really pushing the time frame before he got sick. He supposed he could ask Loki to grab one of his tesseracts from the library to give him a power boost to last him until he got his hands on some of those apples, but the gentle hands repositioning his head so that it rested in a warm lap and slowly carding through his hair were too comforting for Tony to even begin contemplating requesting anything that would make them disappear, even if it was only temporarily.

The contact wasn’t enough, so Tony dragged himself up and settled into Loki’s lap properly, head resting on the liesmith’s chest while he curled up as small and tightly as he could.

“I can feel your magic slowly slipping” Loki said, voice laced with a concern as he tightened his arms around Tony, and Tony could feel it too. At this rate his glamour was going to drop completely in the next few minutes.

Just as Tony was about to speak up, to call Idunn here or ask Loki to fetch a tesseract for him, the trickster tensed beneath him and let out a soft gasp. Tony could feel the presence of one of his tesseracts and snapped his eyes open to see a glowing golden sphere floating a few inches from his position in Loki's lap. Tony swore quietly, he hadn’t thought it was quite that bad, but if a tesseract has manifested here it was only because his health was dangerously close to comatose.

“I’d forgotten they do that.” Tony muttered, moving slightly to hold a hand out in the direction of the tesseract. Loki went very still beneath him as the tesseract landed in Tony’s hand. Tony hummed a soft noise and his eyes slid shut as the ball of light slowly sunk into his skin, golden lines radiating out from his palm and spider webbing their way along his skin.

He rolled off Loki until he was flat on his back on the bed, chest heaving in heavy breaths and with a gasp all of the golden patterns on his skin flashed, a brilliantly disconcerting burning gold. Loki sat quietly and when Tony opened his eyes to look up at him the tricksters eyes were slightly wider than normal.

“Are you alright now?” Loki asked, his voice still quiet.

Tony laughed breathlessly as his glamour slid back into place, his eyes returning to plain brown and the golden patterns fading into non-existence on his skin. 

“Now? Yes.” He sat up slowly before moving to sit in front of Loki, “Now, I have way more energy than I need.” 

Loki smirked, his expression devious, “Do I need to help you get rid of that energy?”

“The fuck you do.” Tony said quickly, moving to straddle Loki’s legs, pressing a fierce kiss to his lips as he tangled his hands in Loki’s hair.

 

Loki groaned into Tony’s mouth. By the nine the god knew how to kiss. With a flick of his wrist Loki banished their clothes to the floor and Tony gasped against his lips at the feel of skin on skin.

Settling his hands on Tony’s waist he moved them both down the bed, so he was lying down and Tony was still straddling his legs.

Tony moved his mouth off Loki's and made his way slowly down the liesmith’s body, leaving bruises as he went. Sucking a little too hard on the skin of his neck, flicking a tongue over a nipple, scraping his teeth down his stomach, before he ended up sucking on the skin just above Loki’s groin as his thumbs traced circle on the trickster’s inner thighs. 

Loki arched off the bed with a groan as Tony finally closed his mouth around the head of his cock, and by god the man was as good with his mouth down there as he was on Loki’s own mouth.

Tony was sucking slightly up his length, his lips dragging across the sensitive flesh, and then he hummed low in his throat around Loki’s cock and the younger god let out a moan at the sensation it caused.

While Tony’s mouth was busy Loki felt a finger push inside him, making him arch of the bed with a shudder as Tony added a second, slowly working him open.

Tony pulled his mouth off his cock as he added a third finger, leaning up to press his lips against Loki's.

“I’m going to fuck you. Hard.” Tony muttered and it sent a tremor through Loki’s body as he rocked against Tony’s hand, a keening noise staring in the back of his throat.

“You ready for me love?” Tony asked, his lips still brushing Loki’s, his voice low and husky.

“Yes.” Loki managed to say, breathless, “Please Tony.”

Next thing Loki let out a cry, throwing his head back as Tony slowly entered him, his cock so much bigger than just his fingers, filling Loki whole, and by the nine the sensation was something he would never get used too.

Being gods had its perks, no lube needed. Tony buried himself until his hips hit Loki’s thighs, collapsing on top of the trickster with a gasp.

“Fuck Loki,” Tony breathed, “Oh god you feel good.”

Loki growled in response, lifting his legs up to wrap around Tony “Fuck me.” Loki gritted out, “Hard Tony, like I know you need it.”

Tony swore, sitting back up and lifting Loki’s hips slightly before beginning to thoroughly fuck Loki into the mattress.

Tony reached down between them and curled his fist around Loki’s cock, working with his hand as he pounded into the god.

Loki came apart, a loud cry on his lips and Tony wasn’t far behind, swearing a blue streak of several different languages as he came.

Tony collapsed on top of Loki, both of them panting hard, before pulling out slowly and rolling to lie beside the younger god.

“That,” Tony muttered with a breathless laugh, “was the best sex I have had in a long time.”

Loki laughed, equally as breathless, before rolling onto his side and pulling Tony closer.

Tony flicked his wrist to clean them up before moving to tuck his head against Loki’s chest as the trickster settled his arms around his waist and back.

“Thankyou” Loki said quietly, “For everything Tony.”

Tony moved his head to look up at him, “Hey, I need you just as much as you need me princess.” He said softly, “so I hope you’re not going anywhere for awhile.”

Loki tightened his arms and pulled Tony even closer, “Definitely not going anywhere.”

Tony smiled against his chest before they both drifted off into a pleasant sleep.

 

OOOO

 

Loki woke up first, looking down at Tony before detangling himself, pulling on a pair of Tony’s pants and making his way out to the kitchen.

He was on his way over to the coffee machine, which Tony had gotten him addicted too on his first stay here, before he froze at the sound of a cup hitting the ground.

Loki turned slowly to see Pepper staring at him in shock. Very slowly he put his hands up in a I-mean-no-harm gesture. He watched as she analysed his face, then his half dressed state and then the jeans he was wearing. Tony’s jeans. An amused smirk took over her face.

“Only Tony.” She said, reaching down to grab her cup, her voice exasperated, “Jesus Christ the stupid god, how on earth is he going to explain this to the others when they find out. Idiot.”

He lowered his hands and raised an eyebrow at her, she smiled, “I’ve been working with Tony since he first showed up in New York. I know who he is.” Loki nodded and Pepper continued, “So you tried to destroy the earth and then the day of your going home Tony disappears, presumably to Asgard?” She raised an eyebrow at him, implying that he was to answer.

Loki nodded, “Yes. Well he came to defend me. When I fell from the bi-frost unfortunately Thanos found me.

Pepper flinched at that, “Right. Okay. Mind control. He did try to explain that to me once.” Pepper looked him up and down again before smiling softly, “Well you don’t look threatening right now, and I suppose as long as you don’t throw me out any windows I'm fine with you staying. Coffee?”

Loki was about to reply with an affirmative, when Tony sauntered into the room wearing sweats and nothing else, and suddenly Loki was getting images of taking Tony apart against the wall behind him and that was just inappropriate with Pepper in the room.

“Since when do you get to decide who lives in the tower my dear?” Tony asked her, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Well since its 12% mine..” Pepper trailed off, and Tony let out an exasperated sigh as Loki moved to sit on a stool at the bench, watching with amusement.

“Really Pep? Haven’t we moved on from that yet?”

Pepper giggled, “I’m going to milk it for as long as I can. I’ll be back in a few days with paper work for you to sign.”

Tony groaned, “Just forge my signature Pep. God knows you of all people could copy it exactly by now.”

Loki watched as Pepper glanced meaningfully between Loki and Tony, before raising an eyebrow at the older god.

“Oh” Loki said, realisation dawning on him, “I’m not going to harm him Miss Potts.”

“And in any case”, Tony said, “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

Pepper laughed, “Of course you are dear.” Then she looked to Loki, “Seeing as you two are a ‘thing’ now, and I'm assuming you’re a thing because Tony went back to Asgard for you, it’s now your responsibility to make sure that he eats, that he doesn’t collapse too often from exhaustion, that he doesn’t blow himself up, or spend more than 78 hours in a row in the workshop without sleep.”

Pepper backed her way toward the elevator, “and no public scandals” she said, pointing at both of them before entering the elevator.

Tony watched her go with a fond smile as the elevator doors closed and then walked up to Loki, straddling his lap where the trickster sat on the stool. Tony slipped his thumbs into the belt loops of the jeans Loki was wearing.

“My jeans are a little short on you.” Tony muttered, before kissing him softly, “but I do like seeing you wear my clothes”

Loki laughed against his mouth and kissed him again quickly before pulling back. “Do you often forget to eat and spend days upon days in your workshop without any sleep?”

Tony shrugged, slipping off his lap and making his way to the cupboard to pull out some plates to prepare breakfast, “I get distracted, especially when I’ve started on something new.”

Loki shook his head at him, a fond smile on his face, “And you’re supposed to be the god of intelligence.”

Loki had to duck the plate that came careening at his head with a laugh. 

 

OOOO

 

It has been a week since Loki came back to Midgard with Tony. They have sex, they talk and now Tony has fitted together the puzzle pieces he couldn’t quite make match beforehand. This little penthouse of peace can’t last long though, because when Thor gets back he won’t be able to keep his mouth shut, and Thanos is still out there. Tony sighed, shit was going to get dangerously complicated.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is an updated version of the original chapter, I re-read it and fixed up some spelling and grammar mistakes as well as the few moment where I accidentally started writing in present tense. So re-read it if you'd like. And the next chapter won't be up until the weekend, at the earliest, it's my last term of school ever, so everything is really hectic, I apologise for the delay and further apart updates but please be patient and stick with me!

Tony sat on his landing pad, swinging his legs off the edge, thinking. Thanos wasn’t going to go down without a struggle and Tony knew he was the only person powerful enough to bring Thanos down and contain him for any length of time.

He stared out at the city, not really seeing anything. His mind was focussed on his magic, 5 out of 9 realms searched now and he still hadn’t found his brother.   
In his pants pocket he felt his phone vibrate. With a sigh he pulled it out and read the incoming text message from director Fury, in all capitals of course. Apparently he was late for a de-briefing.

He groaned as he stood up, with muscles still weary and his magic still below 100% he really did not feel up to doing anything. Sleeping sounded like a good idea. Curled up against the god of mischief and taking a nap. That sounded like a lovely idea.

Muttering under his breath he made his way over to the elevator, throwing a quick I’ll be back to Loki’s reading form on the couch before making his way down to one of the Shield levels of the tower. 

Fifteen minutes later and Tony was falling asleep in his chair. He was vaguely concentrating on Fury going on and on about some robots of some sort they had fought a few days ago when a crack of lightening and a deafening boom of thunder jolted him out of his thoughts. Lifting his head he saw Thor now standing beside Fury at the head of the table, grinning like a madman.

“Good news my friends!” Thor boomed, his voice even louder than usual with his excitement, “Friend Tony have you told them?!”

Tony raised an eyebrow, already knowing that this is it, the other avengers are going to know who he is and that he lied to them. He knew this was coming but hadn’t quite prepared himself physiologically yet. He needed to convince them that they could still trust him, and the Loki issue was most decidedly not going to help with that.

“Why on earth would I do that Thor?” Tony asked, keeping his voice calm.

“Well then I shall tell it!” Thor said, and somehow his grin seems to get bigger.

“What is it Thor?” Steve asked, glancing between Tony and the thunderer in confusion.

“My brother has been declared innocent!” Thor announced, and the table abruptly exploded with questions from all sides and Tony couldn’t help but compare it to the first time they were all on the helicarrier together so long ago. Everyone shouting over the top of each other, voices angry, Bruce was starting to look a little green, and Tony just leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. He had expected this, but by the look on Thor’s face the young god most definitely hadn’t.

“All of you shut your damned mouths, now!” came Fury’s yell from the front of the room, and remarkably they all listened, quieting down and settling stiffly back into their chairs, tense and on edge.

Fury looked over to Tony, his eye not beneath the patch narrowed in suspicion, “What do you have to do with this Stark?”

Tony shot Thor a look that clearly said _be quiet_ but Thor obviously didn’t get the message, “Why friend Tony came home and proved my brother innocence to Father!” Thor said and Tony scrubbed a hand down his face as all of the avengers turn to stare at him. 

He could see Natasha’s hand moving under the table to grab a weapon and quickly started to talk.

“Hardly my ‘home’ Thor, Midgard has been my home from a long time now. Natasha I would appreciate it if you didn't shoot me.” He watched as Natasha moved her hands so that they rested on the table, “Thank you.”

“Explain Stark. Now.” Fury growled and Tony sighed tiredly. He looked up and saw that Thor had opened his mouth and looked ready to jump to his defence.

“Thor.” Tony said forcefully, “Please. Be quiet.” Thor nodded apologetically in response and Tony scrubbed a hand over his face again before looking up at the others. They all had expressions varying from wary to betrayed on their faces and Tony sighed again.

“Loki is innocent.” He said, and watched as almost everyone around the table opened their mouth to protest, “Now now!,” He continued, “Let me explain.”

“Please do.” Barton growled from across the table and Tony shot him an apologetic look. If anyone had more right than the rest to be angry about this it was Clint.

“You all remember how Clint’s eyes looked when he was under the control of the Tesseract. Loki’s were the same on several occasions, someone other than himself using the tesseracts power to look through his eyes, to check on progress. I could feel Thanos’ magic coming from him and used a certain type of, cognitive recalibration I suppose you could call it, to free his mind.” He looked around the table and then up at the director, “Loki was as much a pawn as Barton was.”

“Where is your proof Tony?” Steve gritted out from across the table beside Clint. He had a hand on the archers forearm, no doubt stopping Clint from putting an arrow through Tony’s skull.

Tony sighed, “Jarvis bring up the security footage from the night Loki showed up in the penthouse.”

“All of it sir?” Jarvis asked.

Tony remembered what had happened the night before he removed Thanos from Loki’s mind and his eyes widened, “Oh Christ no!,” he said, “Just the removal of Thanos’ presence.”

The wall at the front of the table lit up to reveal a giant screen and the footage rolled. It started with them sitting at the bar, Loki just realising who he was. The audio was off but it wasn’t really needed, the visual would provide enough proof. They watched as Tony cocked his head to the side and then appeared right beside the trickster, Tony’s hands now glowing gold as he pulled Thanos out of Loki’s mind. The footage cut off and the screen went blank after Tony gave them the opportunity to see Loki lying on the floor, shaking and rocking backwards and forwards and looking utterly and completely broken.

Tony turned to look at the others, all of whom looked mildly horrified. “Thanos is incredibly powerful.” Tony said, voice quiet, “There are very few who have the ability to overcome his magic. When Loki fell from the bi-frost he landed with the Chituari, the army that he let through that portal. After such a fall he wouldn’t have had the strength to fight Thanos even if he could have beforehand. He had no choice, he was a tortured slave used to Thanos’ advantage.”

Clint gave him a nod, letting Tony know that he understood, that he knew and that he believed him. Tony watched Natasha look at Clint and then she too nodded slowly. Bruce looked at him with a wiry smile, Steve was the only avenger left to show a sign of acceptance or agreement. He was looking at Tony, searching for something.

“If Thanos’ is so powerful,” Steve said, his voice dangerously quiet, “Who are you?.”

Tony sighed, “As you’ve probably guessed I’m not human.” He watched as all of the faces around the table returned to carefully blank expressions, “I’m from Asgard. I’m a sorcerer and a good friend to Odin. I’ve been alive a very long time and was court sorcerer in Asgard from almost as long.”

“Indeed!” Thor bellowed, now returned to his usual boisterous self after the others had accepted his brother’s innocence, “Father believed you to be dead for a great time! It is a pity your brother – “

“Thor!” Tony loudly interrupted, giving the thunderer a look which Thor returned apologetically.

Tony looked to the others and continued, “As Thor just mentioned I have a brother. Thanos.” Tony stopped as everyone around the table tensed, going from cautiously suspicious to battle ready in seconds, so Tony quickly continued, “That is why I could sense his magic. It’s also why I could pull him from Loki’s mind. He’s my twin, our abilities and power are of an equal level.”

“So who are you then?” Fury asked, voice dangerously quiet.

“My name is Antonio.” Tony said with a smile, “Inventor god of cunning and intelligence and creator of the tesseracts.” He bowed mockingly in his seat, a smirk on his lips, “At your service my dearest director.”

He flashed Clint a grin when he heard him try to stifle a laugh and Natasha shook her head at him, a slight smile on her face. Bruce just had a raised eyebrow and offered an exasperated smile and Steve finally looked like he was calming down, the edges of his mouth tilted up in the beginnings of a smile. 

“Interesting.” Fury said, “I see you’re still an ass.”

Tony grinned, turning back to the director, “I’m still me. I talk too much, forget to eat, fall asleep in places I shouldn’t, stay awake for hours on end, drink too much, work too much and am a completely sarcastic bastard. The only difference is that now you know that the things I’m creating in my workshop may not always belong to this realm and when I go off radar on a ‘holiday’ I’ve travelled to another realm for reasons of some sort.”

Now all of the other avengers were grinning at him from around the table. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief. They were still with him, they still trusted him, thank fuck.

“Before you start the inevitable team love in,” Fury said, “I would like to know one thing. Where is Loki now?”

Tony exchanged a quick look with Thor before calming stating, “In the spare bedroom of my penthouse.”

The other avengers stared at him so he attempted to explain, while leaving out some important details, like that fact that he might actually be falling in love with the trickster, “Keep in mind that he’s innocent guys. He didn't actually try to rule the earth. Besides Thanos is my brother, I felt obliged to say yes when, after his trial, Loki asked if he could return to Midgard with me.”

“Wait a second,” Clint said slowly, “When you called the footage up before, you made sure that Jarvis didn't show us some things.” Tony smirked, “Tony tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

“None of your business Barton”, Tony said sweetly, “Now Fury I need that tesseract.”

Fury just stared at him and Tony sighed in exasperation before explaining, “I said before that I created the tesseracts. They’re back up reserves of my magic for emergencies. The problem with yours is that my brother has tampered with it, it should be the colour of my magic, gold, not the colour of his, blue.” Fury was still looking reluctant so Tony continued with a raised eyebrow, “If you don’t give it to me I’ll just take it you know”

Fury sighed, “Fine. Take it. But I want a replacement. You say tesseracts are if there is more than one, so I want a replacement.”

Tony smiled while pulling the blue tesseract out of thin air and holding it on his palm, “I will give you another, but you may have to modify your equipment to suit the shape change.” The blue tesseract vanished and was replaced with a golden sphere, with several indents decorating it’s outside, with a simple flick of Tony’s wrist. Fury reached for it and Tony pulled back slightly, “If you use this to create weapons that I do not approve of I will cut off the supply of power, you got that?”

Fury raised an eyebrow at him, “You can’t do that. They’re power sources; you can’t just turn them off.”

Tony laughed at him, “They’re _my_ power sources, of course I can.”

Fury muttered something under his breath that was probably cursing Tony to a horrible death while he took the offered tesseract, “We’re going to have to debrief you so we can update our files on you Antonio.”

“Please,” Tony said, “Just Tony, and here.” He muttered a few words and did a few hand gestures with a flash of gold before saying, his voice coating the words in typical Tony attitude, “Shield files on one Antonio Druson slash Tony Stark officially are updated. Was there anything else my dear director?”

“Actually,“ Steve said from the table, and Tony turned to look at him, “I would like to speak to Loki about all of this.”

The others all nodded in agreement, “Okay,” Tony said slowly, “I’ll talk to him when I get back and we will probably, maybe, see you at dinner.” He grinned and began making his way towards the door to the elevator. He stopped in front of it, turning around to face the others.

“I hope none of you a too angry at me. I had my reasons for keeping who I was quiet. Namely Thor.” Thor smiled lightly at him and Tony returned it with a nod, “So thank you for being co-operative and Natasha I would like to thank you for not shooting me. I shall go talk to the resident maniac god that is not myself and see you all later.” Tony mock bowed and then backed his way into the elevator with a wave at the avengers who were now grinning at him, with varying levels of exasperation and amusement.

As Tony rode the elevator up he thought to himself that it was nice to have a family, because really that’s what the avengers were, a family. Mismatched and occasionally dysfunctional, but a family none the less.

 

OOOO

 

“Where is he Jarvis?” Tony asked as the elevator began to move.

“He appears to be in the library sir. Up to the workshop then?”

“Yes thanks Jarv.” Tony replied before pulling out his phone. As the elevator made its way upwards he tapped out some calculations for the modification of the tesseract. It was going to take a lot of magic and quite a few rare spells to revert the cube back to its original form but it had to be done.

Emerging at the workshop level Tony made his way over to the wall which opened to reveal his library.

“Loki?” he asked, putting his phone away.

“Over here” came the reply and Tony made his way over to the couches near the workspace to see Loki curled up on a couch reading one of his old books.

Tony stood there, shifting from foot to foot trying to figure out how to tell Loki about the other avengers. Loki looked up at him suspiciously and Tony took a breath.

“So,” Tony started, “Your brother may or may not have thanked me loudly, in the middle of a de-briefing, for proving your innocence and helping you.”

Loki put down his book and stood up, standing directly in front of Tony and putting a hand on the older gods shoulders, “Are you alright?” he asked, frowning slightly in concern.

Tony waved a hand at him in a vague gesture, “Of course. I explained and they all came around eventually. Only complication is that they would all like to talk to you, get your point of view on what happened.”

Loki frowned at him and Tony settled his hands on the taller gods waist, “If you willingly talk to them Loki it will help show that you are harmless too them. That you don’t want trouble.”

Loki tightened his grip on Tony’s shoulders, pulling him closer, “I suppose. Talking to them would be beneficial.” The trickster still had a frown on his face so Tony reached up and gently pressed their lips together.

Pulling back he muttered a quiet thank you, tightening his grip on Loki’s waist, “But perhaps we should keep what is between us quiet for awhile. It might be best, for the moment anyway.”

Tony frowned as Loki abruptly let him go, pulling out of his grip to return to the couch, picking up his book. His face was carefully expressionless and Tony swore under his breath as he realised how Loki had taken that statement.

The younger god was convinced that he didn't deserve Tony, and this meant that Tony did not return his feelings to the same level, that he didn't want to tell the other avengers because it wasn’t going to last long anyway. Just another fling.

Tony moved to kneel in front of Loki’s position on the couch, pulling the book out of the tricksters hands and taking them in a tight grip in his own.

“Loki,” he said softly, “I suggested that as I figured they need to get used to the idea of you living here, of your innocence, before we hit them with anything big. The suggestion has nothing to do with my affections for you.” Loki looked away from him, so Tony reached up, gently holding his jaw and turning the tricksters head back so that Tony could meet his eyes, “Hey, you are not just a fling okay? I’ve had enough of them to know you are certainly not that. But Loki, I need you to try and trust that my affections for you are equal to yours for me, because if you can’t trust that of me, how am I supposed to trust that of you?” Loki’s eyes widened slightly and he tightened his hands on Tony’s, “My last relationship ended with me having to make myself a heart out of metal and magic to keep myself alive, I’m just as terrified by this as you are princess.”

Loki smiled softly, pulling them both to their feet.

“I am sorry.” He said quietly, “I jumped to conclusion I shouldn’t have, forgive me.”

Tony smiled up at him, pressing his lips against Loki's lightly before changing the subject, “The other avengers are probably having dinner now, so it’s as good a time as any.” Tony pulled out of the embrace and started towards the elevator before Loki reached out, gripping his wrist to spin the older god back around, firmly grasping his waist with the other hand and good god he was _right there_ , studying Tony’s expression with a startling intensity.

“You’re not getting off that easily,” Loki murmured, looking pointedly at the arc reactor.

Tony sighed, visibly deflating to lean his forehead against Loki’s chest. His ex-wife was not something he wanted to be thinking about right now.

“Another time.” Tony said quietly, flinching at how small and pinched his voice sounded. Loki pulled back to examine his expression, “Please.” Tony said quietly, desperation seeping into his voice. 

Loki only pulled him closer, pressing a hard kiss to his mouth, “Okay.” the trickster muttered, lips brushing Tony’s as he spoke, “another time”, before pulling Tony into the elevator and taking it up to the shared community floor of the tower, in between Tony’s floors and the avengers private ones.

 

The elevator doors opened to the other avengers, lounging around the common floor. Thor, Steve and Clint were all around the television watching Die Hard while Bruce and Natasha were sitting on one of the couches playing a game of chess.

Tony stepped out of the elevator first, letting go of Loki’s hand as the trickster followed, a silence settling over the others in the room.

Tony tried to muffle a laugh and failed as Thor practically skipped from the couch to hug his brother, while Loki muttered “Thor. Cant. Breathe.”, before the thunderer let him go with a clap on his back.

Loki muttered something along the lines of you blond buffoon before they made their way further into the room. Steve paused the movie as Thor sat on the arm of one of the couches and Loki and Tony sat on it in the centre.

“I understand you have questions” Loki started off, his voice quiet, “but first I would like to apologise for the havoc that I helped to instigate upon your realm. I am sorry for the things that Than – that monster made me do, for not being strong enough to refuse him and perhaps prevent what happened and what is coming.”

Steve looked alarmed at that and Natasha calmly repeated, “What is coming?”

Tony nodded, “I’m expecting my brother within a few months. God knows why he wants this realm, but he does. I will be able to feel him coming and either stop him from opening a portal, or alert Odin and the warriors of Asgard will be sent to help.”

The avengers all nodded, concern on their faces when Tony looked to Loki. The liesmith looked guilty, as if the fault of all of this was resting on his shoulders. Thor gently placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, “No one blames you directly brother.” Thor said quietly, and Steve nodded from his position on the other couch.

“We would just like some clarification on what actually happened.” The captain said, and Loki took a deep breath before explaining.

“You know I am not actually of Asgard no doubt.” The avengers all nodded, “Well I was angry, I felt rather betrayed, so I attempt to use the bi-frost to destroy a planet. Thor stopped me by destroying the rainbow bridge which is the source of the bi-frosts power, but in the process a wormhole was opened up.” Tony reached out and gripped Loki’s hand as the god’s voice wavered slightly, the hand in his shaking, “I let go. You have to understand, in my mind I was a monster, unworthy, I wanted a way out and I saw one. I let go and fell off the bridge into the void. I fell for a very long time.” His voice stuttered out and he took a deep breath, Tony tightening his grip on Loki’s hand, “When I landed Thanos found me. He saw potential in me, and power, so he used the tesseract he had taken from Tony to take over my mind. Then the attack on New York happened, and then Tony helped me. Pulled Thanos out of my head.” Loki leaned against Tony then, breathing slightly heavier than usual, “That was exhausting, for both of us. So we gave it a few days. Then I pretended to cause some havoc down town to get your attention, I then pretended to be weakened, let you take me, so Thor could take me home. Then Tony came to my trial, proved my innocence and then I came back to Midgard with him. That is all of it I think.”

Tony nodded beside him and Natasha raised an eyebrow, “So those few days where you went completely off the radar?” she asked.

Tony nodded in response, “I was in Asgard.”

“Right.” Steve said, “Well thank you Loki. Now we know what happened. I’m willing to believe you, and to still trust Tony.”

The other avengers all nodded their agreement and Tony breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I am curious about one thing.” Clint said, and Tony groaned, leaning his head back on the back of the couch, “What was Loki doing in your penthouse in the first place Tony?”

Loki smirked and Thor laughed as Tony muttered, “None of your business Barton.”

They all looked up as the elevator opened with a ding and Pepper stepped out. She grinned at them all, and then turned her eyes to Loki.

“Miss Potts.” He said.

She nodded to him, “Hello Loki. Good to see you two haven’t killed each other yet.”

Loki laughed and Natasha frowned at Pepper, “She knew before we did?” She asked, and Pepper grinned.

“He walked out to see me making coffee. I heard the story, told him as long as he didn't throw me out a window it was fine.” Everyone laughed and Pepper smiled, handing a few documents to Tony, “I need you to sign these.”

Tony signed them and then the other avengers laughed as Pepper disappeared into the elevator with a “Don’t defenestrate Tony again, or I’ll shoot you.” to Loki.

Tony grinned at Loki after she’d left, “Pepper likes you.” He sing-songed and Loki laughed at him.

Tony stood up from the couch, making his way towards the elevator, “Now I have a tesseract to work on.”

Loki stopped him with a yell from the couch, “But you haven’t eaten yet.”

“I’ll be fine Loki”

“No. You were sick a few days ago. I am not letting you into that library without something to eat.”

“Sick?” Steve asked at the same time Natasha said “Library? This tower doesn’t have a library.”

Tony snorted, making a detour to the kitchen to grab some cold pizza, “Yes Steve, I was sick, I’m fine now. And Natasha, god of intelligence,” he said, pointing to himself, “of course I have a library.” And with that he disappeared into the elevator, leaving Loki to socialise with his brother and the other avengers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, there's a line in here I just had to steal becuase it fitted so brilliantly. It's marked with a ** and came from Like_a_Hurricane's fic Calculating Chaos  
> Enjoy this chapter, and I apologise again for the not so regular updates anymore, due to school starting again and being hard as hell

Loki spent the next few hours talking to the other avengers. After a few minutes of awkward forced conversation things got better. He joked with Clint, at Tony’s expense, talked fighting techniques with Natasha and agreed to let Bruce collect some blood samples at a later date. Thor, of course, was his usual loud, idiotic and infuriating self but made an effort to find something to discuss with his adoptive brother, and even thought he failed Loki appreciated the effort. The only avenger that had not made an effort to talk with him since Tony left, to make conversation, was the good Captain Steve Rogers.

Loki was in the process of planning a prank on director Fury with Clint that involved lots of my little pony dolls and glitter, when he saw Steve leave the room through the sliding glass doors out to the balcony. 

Loki hesitated a moment before getting up and following. If he was going to stay in this tower with Tony he needed to get along with everyone, and that included the famous man out of time.

He found Captain Rogers sitting on a bench seat, looking out over the city. Loki walked over, making sure his footsteps could be heard so as not to startle the man, before sinking down on the bench next to Steve.

“So much has changed.” Steve said quietly, “Since, well since everything, I look around and am always so amazed at the resilience of the people here. They just got on with things, it still surprises me most days.”

Loki sat awkwardly for a moment, with no idea what to say before offering a gentle, “I’m sorry.”

Steve glanced at him with a small smile on his lips, “He’s directly responsible for that you know”, when Loki looked at him with confusion Steve continued, “Your Inventor God. He’s responsible for it all, for all the lives people can still live, and he may have lied to us but he had good reason, Tony always has good reason.”

“I know. Believe me I know.” Loki said, his voice quiet.

Steve turned to look at him, meeting his eyes, a pained expression on his face, “When he flew that nuke into the portal I thought we’d lost him. Iron Man was gone. Tony was gone. And then he fell back through it and I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved.” The captain reached out a hand and settled it on Loki’s shoulder, “Look after him okay? I don’t know what’s happened to him in his very long life, what of the reasons behind the reactor or anything else are true, but Tony is just as damaged as you are, if not worse. He doesn’t think about his welfare and he’ll worry you sick, but look after him. He needs you.”

Loki stared at the Captain in shock before nodding, his silver tongue turned to lead. Steve stood up so Loki followed, and was surprised when the captain held out a hand. He shook it hesitantly and Steve smiled at him.

“You’ll look after each other, so I think you’ll be fine. Just don’t level the city if you have an argument okay?”

Loki laughed, “Thank you Captain, and you have my word we won’t _level_ the city if we have an argument, but I can’t promise a zero percentage of property damage.”

Steve laughed, “Just call me Steve Loki, and you two are so alike and yet so different, I am really not surprised.” Loki's expression must have changed slightly to show his fear and Steve smiled at him again, “I won’t tell the others yet, even thought I know they won’t go to Shield, it’s yours and Tony’s information to share, not mine.” And with a clap on the back Steve disappeared back inside.

Loki sat back down to think for a bit. Tony was reckless, and damaged, there was no doubt of that, and sometimes Loki saw glimpses of an anger he recognised to well from the mirror. There was a lot about the inventor god that Loki didn't know, and so he resolved to find out, to slowly learn everything there was to know about the god of cunning and intelligence and the man who was his lover.

After a few moments of thinking Loki went inside, and with a goodnight to the others made his way over to the elevator, taking it up to the workshop where he assumed Tony would be.

 

Entering the workshop he heard swearing coming from the direction of the library. Loud swearing, in languages of this realm and others, and a few dead languages too. Loki paused when he heard what he vaguely recognised from his reading as the old tongue of Helheim. There had been no one alive who knew that language for over 17 millennia and Tony was currently swearing in it fluently, that was a shock, just how old was the god of cunning and intelligence and what had he been before that title?

Loki made his way into the library to see Tony in the open workspace at the front of the gigantic room, well, dimension. The tesseract was hanging in the air, wisps of gold now curling through the blue. The cube was surrounded by several runes, which seemed to be suspended in the air, glowing faintly gold. Some of those runes further drove home the idea that Tony was a lot more than just the god of cunning and intelligence, was too old to be classified as Aseir, runes from the old magic and books Loki had read from long ago about Yggdrasil and the magics that join the nine realms. Maybe Tony had even _written_ some of those books.

Walking around the suspended sorcery Loki saw Tony, still muttering under his breath in an old language that Loki didn't recognise, clutching at his forearm, with blood seeping through his fingers to drip onto the floor.

In an instant Loki was by his side, attempting to pry Tony’s hand from his arm.

“What happened?” Loki asked, his voice thick with concern.

“Damn spell for one of the runes rebounded. I didn't expect my brother to have thought to ward the tesseract against some magics” Tony said, letting out a hiss of pain as he relented and let Loki pull his hand off the wound.

Loki frowned, the cut was deep, extending from wrist to halfway up his forearm, the bone showing through at some points, and Tony was losing a fair bit if blood, “Why aren’t you healing?” Loki demanded and Tony sighed. That sigh worried the trickster; it was beyond exhausted and ended high in a sound borne of pain.

“You know how much magic healing takes, and with me using so much already constantly looking for my brother I need everything I’ve got if I'm going to return this tesseract to its original state to ensure my brother cannot use it. That and I haven’t had one of Idunn’s apples for awhile.”

Loki sighed in exasperation, taking Tony’s arm in both hands, one each end of the wound. Muttering a few sentences he felt his magic knit Tony’s flesh back together. Loki opened his eyes to see Tony looking at him, his face still pale with bags under his eyes, looking absolutely worn out. Loki frowned as he remembered what Tony had said before, about the apples from Idunn’s garden.

“How long has it been Tony? Since you’ve had an apple?” Loki asked, looking very closely at the older gods face.

Tony frowned, opened his mouth and then closed it again before saying, “I honestly have no idea.”

“Hmm, give me a moment.” Loki said, before disappearing.

 

Appearing in Idunn’s garden Loki walked through the trees, picking an apple and eating it as he went. Aseir needed to consume an apple at least once every hundred years or they began to age, and for practitioners of magic their power began to weaken. As Loki grabbed a second apple and placed it in his pocket he felt a shift in the air and turned to see Idunn standing behind him.

“Two apples Loki?” she asked, a delicate golden eyebrow raised.

“Yes. The other is for Antonio, apparently it’s been awhile since he had one”

Loki watched as Idunn’s mouth opened and her eyes widened in shock, after recovering from her reaction she said, “Awhile? Hmm, he does seem to have a fondness for the fruit although he does not need them. They boost his magic. What on earth would you be doing with him?”

Loki frowned and decided to pocket that information for later, “He came to my trial and told father about his brother’s regaining of power and my innocence, I have been with him ever since.”

“Hmm, well tell the old man I said hello, that I recently visited his daughter and that I hope he finally kills that disgrace for a soul-bearing creature that is that brother of his.”

“I will” Loki nodded, before disappearing in a flash of green.

 

When he returned Tony was in the middle of drawing another rune. Loki watched as Tony poured magic into the rune, and his face visibly paled as he winced. Loki was on his feet in an instant, apple in hand.

“Here.” He said, holding it out to Tony, “Idunn said you didn't actually need it, which is curious considering you’re Aseir, but that it would improve your overall health.”  
Loki dropped it in Tony’s now outstretched hand and the inventor took a bite, letting out a positively obscene sound.

“My god.” Tony muttered, “It’s been too long, I’d forgotten how amazing these things taste.” After another bite he said, “I am Aseir, I was born in Asgard, just, before it was Asgard”

Loki froze, “Before Asgard.” He stated, his voice flat, still frozen in place.

“Mmm, yes.” Tony muttered, while continuing to eat the apple, which was obviously helping as some colour was returning to his face. He was pacing in a slow circle around the suspended tesseract and spells, “The place I was born in was destroyed a long long time ago, and it was older than Gallifrey when it died, now that’s saying something. Asgard has been there ever since, my magic runs through the place because my magic comes from the old magics, the connections between the realms that make up Yggdrasil”

Tony seemed to realise what he had said, turning to look at Loki from across the tesseract, the apple now gone, “Sorry,” he said softly, “I’m over tired, I just started talking and couldn’t stop. Next time feel free to tell me to shut up.”

Loki stood there for a few moments as Tony went back to work, drawing another rune while muttering in another dead language. Tony was older than Asgard. That was, Loki couldn’t even begin to fathom it. His train of thought was interrupted by another bout of swearing that he only understood half of.

“Tony?” he asked, concerned.

“Hmm?” Tony said, looking towards Loki. He now had a cut on his collar bone that looked like it went deeper than the one on his arm had.

Loki frowned, “Another spell rebounded?” he asked

“What? Oh.” Tony said, looking confused for a moment before he seemed to notice that he was bleeding down the front of his shirt, “I didn't even notice, the old magic gets like that.”

Loki walked over to him, putting a hand over the wound and healing it.

“Thankyou,” Tony said softly.

“We need to talk later, about some of the things you just mentioned,” Loki said, wrapping his arms around the shorter god’s waist and pressing their foreheads together, “But don’t hesitate to ask me for help if you need your magic for other things. I’m curious and shocked about some things you just told me, but right now my priority is making sure you don’t hurt yourself, and if you do I notice, so that you don’t bleed out all over the goddamn floor.”

Tony kissed him then, leaning up to press their lips together.

When he pulled back to lean their brows together again, his voice was barely audible, “When I figure out how you keep doing that I’m going to write a book about it.”

Loki pulled back to see Tony’s face, looking at him in confusion, “Doing what?”

“Terrifying me every time you surprise me. Just when I think I’ve got you figured out you do or say something that takes me off my guard. You tend to make me drop every single mask or wall I’ve got, mental or emotional and sometimes physical. You’ve seen me partially without my glamour, anyone else who could have said that is long dead. I don’t even realise I’ve made myself vulnerable to you, that you’ve made me feel as safe as this library makes me feel, as safe as keeping my mind closed and my glamour up. Don’t ever stop. I have no idea what I would do if you did.”

Loki stared at him for a moment. The older gods face was so open, so honest that he didn't quite know how that made him feel, honesty is something he rarely had presented to him, and now he had this god, this impossible amazing god in front of him offering all of it.

Loki pressed a hard kiss to Tony’s lips, pulling the inventor flush against him, a sound somewhere between a whimper and a pained choking noise pulling up his throat.

When he pulled back he moved his hands to cradle Tony's face, lips brushing his and voice soft as he talked.

“Fuck Antonio. You put me off my guard as much as I do you. I can’t even-“

He was cut off by Tony’s lips on his again and a grind of the older god against him brought a groan to his lips.

“The tesseract can wait.” Tony said, voice getting more and more breathless as Loki made little undulating motions with his hips, “There’s a couch behind me. I think you should fuck me on it.”

Loki groaned again before pressing their lips together and backing Tony towards the couch.

 

OOOO

 

They were lying in bed later that night after migrating from a couch in the library to Tony's bedroom, which really wasn’t Tony's anymore, it was _their bedroom_.

Tony was lying on his back, Loki pressed along his side with an arm thrown over his waist, the reactor giving a dull blue glow to the room.

“Tony, just how old are you?” Loki asked, his voice quiet.

Tony stiffened, “Does it matter?” 

Loki looked up at him, “Well no, but I would like to know.”

Tony relaxed with a shrug, “I was born in the place that used to sit where Asgard now sits, I was 26 millennia old when it was destroyed, I stopped counting after that. So I suppose if you add 26 millennia to how ever old Asgard is that’s how old I would be.”

Loki swore quietly, “Fuck. And I thought father was getting on in years. That’s old Tony. You’ve been around for a long time.”

Tony laughed, moving to card a hand through Loki’s hair, “I’m aware.”

Loki shifted slightly, bringing a hand up to rest over the arc reactor.“You never did tell me how you ended up with enchanted shrapnel in your chest.” He said, the words clearly a question. 

Tony sucked in a quick breath, letting it go slowly in an attempt to calm his now racing heart, which Loki could surely feel through the reactor. “Are you sure you want to know?”

Loki looked up at him, a thumb gently caressing the skin where metal met flesh, “My curiosity about you doesn’t exactly have limits”**

Tony sighed, sitting up to lean against the head board and run a shaky hand through his hair, “It’s not a pleasant story, although not the worst I’ve got, it’s still not good.” Loki moved to settle in front of him and Tony continued, “You know I have a daughter yes?” he asked, and Loki nodded, “Well I was married to her mother at one point, not anymore of course, but I was. At the time tensions between Asgard and Alfheim had been growing for awhile. Odin decided that a diplomatic marriage would be a good way to build some trust between the realms, so when he asked I said yes. Within the month I was married to the king of Alfheim’s daughter Freya. She was a beautiful young woman, and being a realm of elves she was rather ecstatic to be marrying someone renowned as the best sorcerer to have lived in all the realms in a long time, their race valuing magic the way they do. All was well. Freya’s first few centuries as Queen were prosperous and good, we had a little girl called Iridessa. I don’t know what happened but something in Freya broke that I could not fix. She became violent and threatened Issy. So I took my daughter and returned to Asgard. I would have been perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but the elves magic is unique and unpredictable, even now I would not like to face one of them in a fight, so I left. I was on Midgard when she found me. She only had a gun so I wasn’t too worried, after all what was a gun going to do to me? But then she fired several rounds and I was surprised to find myself bleeding out onto the floor. Odin felt the shift in the magics of the realms as my life began to drain and a found me in time.”

At some point Loki had reached out and taken his hand, squeezing softly, “She’s not likely to come after you again is she?” he asked, his grip tightening.

Tony sighed, running his free hand through his hair, “She is determined to wipe every trace of us ever being together off the face of all the nine realms, which includes my daughter and myself, I’m monitoring, keeping an eye out, things should be fine.”

Loki nodded, and then paused, “Did you love her?” His voice was very quiet, only just audible to Tony’s advanced hearing range.

“Good god no!” He exclaimed, “Was fond of her? Yes, but I certainly did not love her.”

There was a pause at Loki looked up at him, searching his face, “And are you _fond_ of me too?” he asked

“Yes.” Tony said. Loki responded by withdrawing his hand from Tony's and going to move but before he could get anywhere Tony had placed his hands on the tricksters shoulders, pushed him back onto the bed, straddled his hips and pinned him down.

“You didn’t let me finish.” Tony continued, and Loki raised an eyebrow, trying to feign nonchalance even thought his eyes were a little wider than usual and his breathing a little faster. Tony leaned down to brush his lips over Loki's, barely a touch. “I am fond of you. I am so overly fond of you that it is well and truly breaching dangerous there’s-no-going-back-now territory.”

Loki sucked in a quick breath at that before rolling them, pinning Tony down and connecting their lips in a hard kiss, tongues dancing as raw emotion bled over into the physical. 

Tony felt like he should say those three words, he basically just did, but he couldn’t say the actual words. His psyche was just as delicate as Loki’s and using those three words out loud, to commit to it, to confirm it too himself was fucking terrifying, and the old god had thought the ability to be terrified had left him long ago.

With a flick of Loki’s wrist their clothing was banished to the floor and all coherent thought completely disappeared from Tony’s head.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that it's been so long! I've had such a hectic couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy this chapter, spelling errors and such you can point out to me, I would appreciate it.  
> Enjoy :)

The next morning Tony and Loki were lying in bed, the older god just on the verge of slipping back into sleep, when a loud whirring noise had him up and running towards the living room in a heartbeat.

Tony appeared on one of the common floors just in time to see the other avengers in various positions around the room, staring in shock at the blue box that was materialising in their living room.

Tony stood there, hands on his hips, waiting. After a moment the door opened and Tony grinned to see a man in a bowtie and tweet jacket stepping into the room.

“And may I ask why you’ve appeared in my living room?” Tony asked, eyebrow raised but a smile on his face.

The man grinned and moved forward to sweep him into a hug, “Antonio! Hello!.” He pulled back, rubbing his hands together, “How’ve you been? Well I can see.” The doctor turned slightly, looking over Tony’s shoulder as his smile turned into a full blown grin, “And hello Thor, Loki, long time no see! Now Antonio,” he said, turning back to the god and grasping his shoulders, “Happy Birthday, and I realise we have planning to do, but could I get a cup of tea?”

Tony frowned, while making his way over to the kitchen, “Is it my birthday?” 

“Should be. Of course it is. I never miss.” The doctor said, glancing down at his watch and accepting the cup of tea Tony handed to him, “Yes, yes. It’s the right date, and judging by the year – blimey your getting on a bit aren’t you?” Tony laughed softly as the doctor sipped his tea, before turning back to the room of very confused superheroes. “Now Antonio, introduce me to your lovely avengers friends, I can’t believe I haven’t come to this timeframe to see you all in action yet.”

Tony laughed, and turned to the others, “Guys this is the Doctor. He’s a Time Lord, Alien, the blue box is called the Tardis, its bigger on the inside ad he travels through time and space as he pleases.” Tony shot the doctor a look, “Unless he’s busy erasing himself from history that is” The doctor looked sheepish before smiling at the others.

“Lovely to meet you all.” He said brightly, “I hope I didn't land the tardis on anything important. Like Clint’s bow or any robots of yours Tony.”

Tony laughed and Clint looked at the man cautiously, “How do you know me?” he asked, and the doctor grinned.

“I know all of you. There aren’t many people as famous as you lot in this universe I don’t know. That there,” he said, pointing at Steve, “Is the great Captain America, Steven Rogers. I saw you once in a raid, how I ended up there I don’t know. Foul bloke Hitler, I got to lock him in a cupboard. Anyhow,” he continued, pointing at each avenger in turn, “Thor and Loki I know from my many trips to Asgard, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye and Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow are both agents of Shield, the marvellous doctor Bruce Banner who is also the fascinating Hulk and then there’s Tony Stark aka Antonio, aka, God of Cunning and Intelligence, aka Keeper of Magics, aka Iron Man whom I have a very _very_ long past with.”

Tony snorted a laugh, “You forgot former King of Alfheim, Dragon Rider, Keeper of the Histories and Court Sorcerer on two different realms.”

“So I did. Oh you of many titles. Anyhow, back to important matters, your birthday, we need to throw a party.” The doctor gave him a smile and Tony tried to concentrate with Loki staring at him. He knew he now had some explaining to do, and some of those titles needed an awful lot of explaining. He was snapped out of his thought by a whoop from Thor.

“A party indeed!” the thunderer exclaimed, “It shall be a merry occasion with much mead and singing!”

The others chuckled and Tony turned to the doctor in question, “I honestly had no idea it was my birthday. Is this a significant date? We don’t usually do parties unless it’s a significant date and I really have no idea how old I am.”

The doctor grinned as they all moved to sit around the kitchen table, “You need to keep better track of dates!” he admonished, and Tony raised an eyebrow, “Fine, I concede it’s a long time to keep track of dates, but still. We celebrate very five millennia or so –“

“Do we?” Tony asked, incredulous.

“Yes.” The doctor insisted, “and you just hit 1305 millennia old today! Now come on, party planning time!”

There was a loud crack as Steve dropped his, thankfully empty, coffee cup, and Clint choked on his drink while Natasha slowly set her mug back down on the table.

There was a moment of silence until Clint recovered enough to ask slowly, “I'm sorry, did he just say 1305 millennia old?” 

“Don’t ask me,” Tony muttered, looking down at his coffee, “I stopped counting at around 26 millennia so.”

“That’s eons Tony” Steve said, his voice very quiet.

“Yes.” Tony said, looking up at them now, “At least a quarter of that, I think, I spent falling through a bottomless black realm called the void. I’m well aware that it’s a bloody long time Steve.”

“Okay!” the doctor said, interrupting whatever Steve had been about to say in reply, “Party planning! Because you throw the best parties Tony, and we’ll invite EVERYONE. Torchwood and your Jotunn friends, the Elves who still like you, your daughter, Captain Jack, Martha and Mickey, Asgardians of course, everyone!”

Tony was grinning now, “It would be good to see everyone. Okay. Party, we’re having a party.” He said, to a whoop of joy from Thor and Clint who were both grinning like mad men. “Now I’m going to go warn Fury as to the several intergalactic disturbances that are going to happen with people travelling, I’ll set up a landing circle out on my landing pad and put up some wards to disguise the party from the rest of the city. How’s that sound?”

The others were grinning at him now too, “Fantastic!” the doctor said. Tony made his way over towards the elevator when Loki stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

Tony turned and met his gaze, “I know I have a hell of a lot of talking to do, but – “ Loki cut him off with a swift kiss.

“Go talk to the director, you can explain later.” He said softly, a smile on his face, “Don’t be too long or I’m afraid the time lord will go overboard.”

Tony laughed and pressed another kiss to Loki’s lips, “Be back soon.” He muttered, before teleporting out of the living room.

 

Tony appeared in Fury’s office, a smile on his face. The director was facing away from him, out the window. Tony coughed, not at all politely, and the director spun around.

Tony gave him a grin and Fury narrowed his eye, “What do you want Tony? And I really wish you wouldn’t just appear in my office like that.”

Tony’s grin grew at Fury’s obvious discomfort, “I’m just here to warn you that apparently it’s my birthday. Therefore I’m having a party. Therefore there will be several beings arriving on the planet to celebrate with me using various means of transport and you’re not allowed to apprehend any of them” Fury stared at him, so Tony continued, still grinning, “I will use magic to conceal the party from the rest of the city as it’s going to be loud and I don’t particularly need civilians to ask why there were people with wings jumping off Stark Tower or why a blue giant was sitting on the roof seemingly drunk out of his mind.”

Fury stared at him for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh, “No property damage outside the tower Stark.”

Tony smiled at him as he began is disappear, “Of course not director.” 

Tony thought he heard a muttered “I don’t get paid enough for this shit.” before he faded out completely, laughing.

 

Tony returned to the tower to see junk food everywhere. Thor had made his way to Asgard and returned with dozens upon dozens of bottles of Asgardian mead and Tony grinned to see that Hogun and Volstagg had returned with him. Already consuming their second bottle.

“Antonio!” Volstagg boomed from across the room, “This party had better be as good as the last one or I’ll be complaining.”

Tony laughed, “I’ll try my best. Now don’t eat everything.” He hollered as he made his way out to his landing pad. He drew some runes onto the floor with his magic and then muttered a few words to connect them all. After that he moved to the middle of the penthouse common room floor. It was connected to the other common rooms by stairs and all three floors would soon be filled with people Tony knew. He sat down in the centre of the spacious room before placing his hands on the floor. He muttered a few sentences of the old magics mixed in with the new and felt his energy run across the floor to weave over the upper levels of the tower. 

Wards now in place he opened his eyes and was startled to find Loki in the room, sitting directly in front of him.

“I could have done that.” The younger god muttered, reaching out to hold both of Tony’s hands in his own, “You’ve been using so much of your strength lately.”

Tony shrugged, “Its fine Loki. Only a ward. It doesn’t take much.”

Loki was about to say something when he was cut off by a bellow from the floor below.

“Where is he!” shouted a voice from downstairs, “The bastard owes me a drink!”

Tony laughed, as he pulled Loki to his feet and the two of them made their way downstairs. Loki froze in the doorway when he saw a frost giant on the balcony. He looked like a typical frost giant, wearing little clothing and shining red eyes, but he was at least half the size.

Tony gave his hand a squeeze before letting go and entering the room, several other guests had arrived but Tony paid them little mind as he made his way over to Mimir, his long time friend and ally.

“What's all this shouting about eh?” Tony asked, and the giant turned around to pull him into a crushing hug.

“You owe me a drink magic man.” Mimir said, letting the god go.

“And you owe me a certain stone little giant, so we shall trade or you can just go and drink Thor’s mead.” Tony said.

The giant laughed, “Thor’s mead it is then.” Tony grinned and then turned, beckoning Loki closer. The younger god hesitantly made his way into the room and over to Tony’s side.

“Mimir, this is Loki.” He said, “I’m sure you’ve heard of him?” Tony asked, an eyebrow raised meaningfully.

“Of course.” The giant said, “Taken from our frozen lands during the war. I hold nothing against you Prince, and especially if Tony has taken a liking to you.” Tony laughed as the giant stuck out a hand. Loki hesitantly took it, giving a quick shake and then let go as his arm gradually became blue. Tony reached out and took Loki’s hand in his own, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Mimir looked between the two of them and then grinned widely, “I congratulate you Loki. You have managed to melt the Ice Heart.”

“Mimir-“ Tony started, a warning in his voice.

“Until that daughter of his came along we used to say that he would have belonged much better on Jotunheim than on Asgard. An ice landscape to suit an equally cold and impenetrable heart.”

“Oh shut up you bumbling oaf.” Tony muttered, reaching out to slap the giant on the arm.

Mimir laughed before pulling Tony into another hug, “I suppose we should go enjoy the party,” he said, nodding in the direction of the several guests that had arrived in the time passed, “I will no doubt converse with you both later.” And with that he was gone.

“An ice landscape to suit an equally cold and impenetrable heart huh?” Loki asked and Tony laughed.

“Shut up you. I have several reputations. Ice Heart is one of them.”

Loki only smiled at him and then let Tony drag him into the party.

After hours of drinking and dancing and greeting people and saying goodbye Tony and Loki stumbled their way up to Tony’s bedroom. With a flick of the wrist they were both in bed clothes and collapsing onto the feather soft mattress in drunken exhaustion.

 

OOOO

 

Tony could feel his head throbbing and there was high tittering female laugh bouncing around inside his skull, a laugh that sounded anything but sane. He started awake with a gasp, rolling out of Loki’s grasp and landing on the floor with a thud.

“Fuck” he muttered, eyes wide. Tony was aware of Loki’s form, now sitting on the bed and eyeing him wearily, but another round of manic laughter inside his head had him groaning in pain and unable to concentrate.

Loki moved to get off the bed but Tony stuck out a hand, stopping him in his tracks. “Tony?” Loki asked, voice concerned and a frown on his face. Tony could still hear Freya in his head, deliberately trying to get his attention. She laughed again and it felt like a hundred glass splinters being dragged through his skull. Tony flinched, letting out another pained sound as he moved his hand up to press against his temple.

The movement seemed to spur Loki into action and the younger god ended up crouched in front of Tony, looking extremely worried.

“Tony?” he said, his voice very soft. Tony blinked up at him, “Hey, Antonio, you with me?”

The older god was about to answer when Freya laughed again and he swore, jumping abruptly to his feet, “I-fuck. I have to go Loki. I have to deal with this.” She laughed again and Tony winced as the pain increased, the shards digging further into his mind. “Give me three days Loki. If I’m gone longer than three days you come looking. Okay?”

“Tony tell me what the fuck is going on right now” Loki said, voice dangerously low as he reached out to grip Tony’s shoulders.

Tony sucked in a sharp breath as a pull on the shrapnel sent a searing pain through his chest. “Freya.” He gritted out and Loki’s grip on his shoulders tightened. Tony moved his hands to cup Loki’s face, pressing a hard kiss to his lips. He pulled back far enough to mummer, “Three days Loki. Then you come looking.”

Loki nodded and then Tony was gone, disappearing to who knew where.

 

Tony dodged another flare of fire before pivoting on a heel and throwing a spell back at his ex-wife. He’d arrived to a small clearing in a forest on the outskirts of Alfheim to see his daughter tied upside down hanging from a tree and Freya poking her repeatedly with a hot branding iron. The fight had begun immediately after that and had been going on for at least a day.

Tony grunted as a blade found its way into his side and he moved to throw a knife at Freya. It hit its target, right through her abdomen. She shrieked, purple eyes flaring bright with pain before she unleashed all the power she had. Tony let out a yell as fire burned down his side and as he spun to move it charred over his back. Those would be worse than third degree burns he thought to himself, and now there was a melted dagger stuck in his side. Fan-fucking-tastic. With a yell he put everything he had into his throwing arm and transfigured a poison tipped spear out of one of his knives. Freya dodged, the spear missing her neck where it had been intended, but instead buried itself in her shoulder and pierced through the other side.

Freya let out a shriek of agony and disappeared, leaving behind nothing but faint purple smoke and the smell of burning flesh in the air.

Tony staggered his way over to Iridessa, who was mostly uninjured except for a few burns that would heal. He cut her down and she managed to right herself before she hit the ground, catching him as he swayed.

“Come on dad.” She said softly, “Let’s get you to Asgard.”

He shook his head, “Midgard please Issy.” He said, voice hoarse and stuttering from pain, “Loki can heal me. I’ll be fine.”

She looked at him closely for a moment before teleporting them both into his bedroom at the penthouse.

 

“Welcome back sir.” Jarvis said as Iridessa laid him down on the bed. 

“Hello Jarvis, “ she said, “Could you please tell Loki that – “

“I will notify Mr Loki momentarily Miss Iridessa. I have taken the liberty of running Sir a cold shower, for the burns, if you could help him too it, Mr Loki will do the rest.”

She nodded, “Thankyou Jarvis.” Before manoeuvring Tony out of what little clothing had not been burnt off and helping him into the shower. The older god sunk down and ended up sitting cross legged on the floor of the shower, the cold water running over his back and side where the worst burns were.

“Loki’s on his way up dad, I have to return to Asgard and talk to Odin about this, alright?”

Tony nodded, looking up at her, “Go sweet heart, “he muttered, voice almost inaudible, “Loki will be here in a moment, I’ll be fine.”

Issy nodded, before leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. “Love you dad.” She muttered and he smiled up at her as she faded out.

 

Tony sat on the floor of the shower, leaning his head against the side of the bath while the freezing water ran down his back and soothed the burns. He closed his eyes and did a mental map of his injuries. Burnt skin to the second degree on his arms, one hand hardly looked like a hand anymore it was so burnt. His chest was singed and sensitive but no more. He could feel the dagger in his side where in had melted into his skin. The fire had hit him directly on that side, burning through his flesh so that he was sure his ribs must have been visible on the side. His back, while being soothed by the water, still burned and stung and he wanted to scream. No doubt most of his skin was gone from there as well, leaving almost half of his body stripped of flesh down to the bones and he ached, everywhere. His mind, his muscles, his bones, everything _hurt_ with a level of pain he hadn’t felt in a long long time, and every sliver of his magic was long gone.

Tony opened his eyes and raised his head at the sound of the door opening. Loki was standing in the doorway, seemingly frozen in shock as he took in the damage. Tony gave him a weary smile before returning his head to lean against the edge of the bath.

The movement seemed to snap Loki out of his frozen state and he moved to crouch in front of Tony, on the tiles outside the bath. The younger god reached out a hand and placed it on Tony’s burnt forearm.

The inventor god let out a sound of pain and drew back from the touch, “Your skin, I, anything above freezing fucking _hurts_.” He managed to get out, his voice hoarse and barely audible.

Loki sat down on the tiles in front of him, before he reached out again, now blue skin caressed the side of Tony’s face. The older god let out a groan and turned his head into the marvelously cold hand.

“What happened Tony?” Loki asked, he voice very soft, hand still cupping the other gods face.

“Freya has a fondness for fire.” Tony muttered, voice still laced with pain, “I have no magic, I can’t heal, the burns are too severe.” He lifted his head and Tony’s hands gripped the edge of the bath tub as he attempted to pull himself up. His glamour was down, he knew, but the gold on his skin was mostly burnt away and the gold in his eyes would be dull due to the lack of magic.

Loki reached out and grasped Tony’s shoulders, pulling him to his feet before helping him out of the bath. Tony heard Loki draw in a sharp breath at the sight of his side, now in better view as he stood. Tony looked down to find that his assumption had been correct; you could see his ribs in between bits of blackened skin and a melted in silver dagger.

A wave of dizziness overcame him and Tony swayed forward, only for Loki to catch him and carry him out to the bed. As Loki laid him down on the bed Tony began to shake violently, from lack of magic, exhaustion and pain. 

“Shh, it’s alright. I’ve got you.” Loki murmured quietly while he skimmed his still blue hands over Tony’s skin, his magic knitting broken flesh back together and replacing missing skin. Tony heard the liesmith gasp and opened his eyes to see that under Loki’s hands the gold on his skin was beginning to swirl back into existence. Tony looked up as he felt an energy presence in the room, to see one of his tesseracts hovering above his face. Still too broken and exhausted to move he motioned with his eyes and Loki got the message.

The younger god carefully reached up, grasping the small tesseract in his hands, eyes widening at the warm humming sensation.

“The reactor.” Tony muttered, his eyes falling shut again, “It will absorb the energy. That tesseract is small but it will be enough to keep me alive while the healing continues.”

Loki nodded and moved to press the tesseract into the glass above the reactor. Slowly the glowing sphere sank down and into the reactor.

Tony smiled as a jolt of energy went through his system and he opened his eyes to see Loki tracing the golden patterns over his skin with his gaze. 

Loki looked up and met his eyes, red connecting with gold, and then the trickster smiled.

Tony returned it and then rolled to his side, “Could you, hold me please?” he hated having to ask, but he needed it, “Your skin against my still sensitive back should help.”

He felt Loki move off the bed, the rustling of clothes and then the lights went out and Tony felt a cool chest press against his back, blue arms sliding around him to hold him tight.

Loki pressed a kiss to his temple, right over one of the golden patterns, “I rather like you in your natural form.” He murmured, voice soft.

Tony let out a soft chuckle, “And I like yours, the blue suits you.” Tony felt the trickster smile against his back as he slowly drifted off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!  
> I hate to say it but the next chapter won't be for another week at least, possibly two, but it will either be the last or second last chapter so hold onto you hats folks! haha


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY. This chapter killed me! I've re-written it three times trying to get it right and i'm finally, mostly, happy with it. This is the final chapter, I hope you've enjoyed the story and thankyou for sticking with me :)  
> Also all chapter of this story have been revised, fixed and generally improved

Loki woke to an empty bed and the sound of a piano being played from somewhere on the penthouse floor. Slowly rolling out of bed he made his way out to the main room of Tony’s private level of the tower.

He was greeted with the sight of Tony, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, seated at the grand piano by the large glass wall. 

The music was soft, drifting through the space, seeming to wrap around Loki and pull him forward.

The younger god found himself sitting down, beside Tony on the piano’s seat. He looked over at the inventor god to see his eyes closed, hands moving slowly over the keys, completely absorbed in the melody.

As the song came to an end Tony opened his eyes to look over at Loki. The liesmith smiled softly and Tony moved closer until Loki could wrap his arms around the older god and hold him close, Loki sitting with one leg either side of the bench seat, Tony between his legs, his face buried against Loki’s neck.

“I’m sorry I worried you, and I’m sorry I left with so little explanation.” Tony murmured against his skin, his voice painfully soft.

Loki decided this wasn’t comfortable enough, and in the next blink of an eye they were on the couch. Loki leaning against an arm rest with his legs spread out, Tony between them, resting against his front. Tony merely blinked at the change of position before snuggling closer, his hands settling over Loki’s chest.

Loki ran his hand up and down Tony’s spine, feeling the now smooth skin where last night there had only been a charred mess of flesh and bone. “Under the circumstances, I’d say it was justified. Just, please, try not to worry me like that again.” The liesmith took a deep breath before continuing, “When I first walked into the bathroom and saw you, I thought, well I thought I was going to lose you. There was so much damage.” Tony had moved as the younger god’s voice became shakier. He was now sitting in Loki’s lap, facing the god, a hand either side of the liesmith's face.

“You didn't lose me and I’m not going anywhere.” Tony said softly, before pressing their lips together.

The kiss was soft, both of them still exhausted, Loki from healing Tony and Tony from coming very close to almost dead the night before. Loki pulled back, leaning their foreheads together.

“Let me see you.” He murmured, “I want to learn the shapes of the gold on your skin as well as I’ve learnt the rest of you.”

Tony pulled back to look at him, considering. “If I do, then you have to let me learn you. Every single raised mark on your natural form, the dips and lines and varying shades of that stunning blue.”

Loki gave him a wry smile, “Not many would describe it as stunning.”

“Well I certainly do.” Tony murmured before pressing their lips together again. With a thought Loki had them both back in the bedroom, Tony under him on the bed.

Loki slowed the kiss right down, languid, before pulling a hairs breadth away, “You first” he said softly, and Tony’s face lit up with a smile, before Loki kissed him again.

The next time Loki drew back his was met with gold ringed eyes and the golden patterns on Tony’s face. He sucked in a breath before pulling back, straddling the inventors hips. Loki reached out a hand, tracing the patterns down Tony’s temple to his jaw with feather light fingertips. The older god let out a hum of contentment and Loki banished the rest of Tony’s clothes with a flick of his wrist. 

Loki spent the next hour tracing the patterns that littered Tony’s body. Over his bottom lip, down his neck, across his shoulder blades, from his navel to his hips and around to the base of his spine, before curling around his thighs and coming to a delicate stop on the insides of his knees. In the process Tony’s eyes had fluttered closed and when Loki followed the patterns along his inner thighs with his tongue rather than his fingertips Tony couldn’t help the low moan that forced its way up his throat.

“Loki please.” Tony breathed out, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so turned on in my life. The designs are so sensitive I-“ 

Loki grinned as Tony let out a rather high pitched moan as the liesmith swallowed him down. It didn’t take long with Loki working him with his mouth and his fingertips tracing the patterns along his hips before Tony was arching off the bed and coming with a cry of the trickster’s name.

Loki pulled off him and moved his mouth to Tony’s, kissing him slowly. Tony took advantage, gripping Loki’s hips and flipping them over before pulling back from his mouth. Loki gasped at the sight. Tony above him, eyes burning fiercely, reactor glowing and golden patterns shining in the dull light. He looked magnificent.

Tony leaned down, brushing his lips against Loki’s ear lobe, “Now it’s your turn.” Before he divested Loki of his remaining clothes.

Loki looked up at him hesitantly and Tony raised an eyebrow. The liesmith sighed, before closing his eyes and focussing on cold thoughts, on winter and ice and snow. In the next moment all the points where Tony’s skin met his became searing hot, not quite painful and not quite pleasurable either.

Loki opened his eyes to see Tony looking down at him, the expression on his face one of open fascination and adoration. It made Loki’s breath catch in his throat. No one had ever looked at him like that before, at least not in this form, his natural form.

Tony leaned down and began tracing the raised marking along Loki’s face and down his neck with his lips, fluttering kissing along the patterns.

It wasn’t long before Tony was returning the favour and they both lay, sated and blissed out, curled around each other.

“Tony” Loki murmured against his chest.

“Hmmm?”

“When it’s just the two of us, can you stay in this form. I rather like it.”

There was a moments silence and when it went on for too long Loki pulled away from Tony too look up at his face, concerned.

The liesmith found Tony smiling down at him, before capturing his mouth in a soft kiss. “Only if you stay like this.” Tony replied. “Besides, blue and gold go rather beautifully together don’t you think?”

Loki laughed softly, a little breathlessly, before pressing his mouth against Tony’s again.

“Deal” Loki muttered and he felt Tony’s answering smile against his lips.

Loki pulled back again, giving Tony a look, “We have some things to discuss.” Tony raised an eyebrow, “Or mores specifically things you need to explain.”

Tony winced, “Ahh, right.”

“Mmm, yes.”

“Okay, well. Which would you like to hear first?”

Loki settled in beside Tony, rolling on his side so that they were facing each other, legs tangled underneath the sheets. “Probably Dragon Rider. And then Keeper of Magics. They’re the ones I want to know about.”

Tony took a deep breath. “Okay, my people.” Tony started and Loki raised an eyebrow, “Not the Aseir,” Tony continued, “ _My_ people, before Asgard. The realm we lived in, we shared it with the Dragons, or Drogons, whichever you prefer.” 

Loki frowned, “You mean the people who could turn themselves in to Dragons at will, the shape shifters?” 

“Yes, them” Tony said, he smiled at the incredulous look on Loki’s face, “As you are the core of the majority of Midgards myths and legends, we are the core of yours, of Asgards. There are no dragons left of course, but back when I was young, and my home still existed. So very long ago. I rode the dragons. There were very few of my people that the Drogons trusted enough, but I was one of them. I rode them into battle and for fun. God Loki you can’t imagine.” Tony said, his voice gone very soft, staring off into the distance, “Soaring above the city, the moons shining down on you. Feeling the magics pulse through you and the dragon with every beat of their wings.” Tony shook his head slightly and seemed to snap himself out of it to find Loki grinning at him.

Suddenly Tony had an idea, he reached out two fingers and placed them against Loki’s temple, “May I show you?” he asked, his voice very soft.

“You can do that?” Loki asked, eyebrows raised. Tony simply nodded in response. “Okay, yes. Show me. I want to share your happy memories of your home with you.”

Tony smiled and then closed his eyes.

Loki feel a slight tug on his mind and then was pulled in to a memory that was not his own.

_Loki could feel himself soaring through the sky, sitting atop the magnificent creature beneath him. He looked up to find the sky full of cosmos and two moons, beside each other, hanging like huge white coins in the sky. As the dragon beneath him beat its wings there was a faint, comforting and slightly warm jolt through his body. He was faintly aware of the gold on his skin burning and then he looked down. The city sprawled hundreds of meters below. Large glass buildings, all light and air and open space, the violet sky reflected on their surfaces. Domes and pillars and gardens; Green and purple and glass._

Loki came back to himself with a gasp as his eyes flashed open. He looked to Tony and found the other god smiling at him. “Your home, Tony that place was beautiful.” He said, his voice very soft.

Tony’s smile turned slightly rueful, “I know.” He said, “Then the war came and everything was destroyed.” 

Loki reached out a hand to cup the side of his face. Tony met his eyes and gave him a weary smile, “It was a long time ago, I’m fine.”

Loki knew better but decided to let it slide for the time being, “And the Keeper of Magics?” he asked

Tony laughed at that, “What a title, Keeper of magics. I’ve forgotten where that one came from, who came up with it. But essentially it was to do with my magic, My people, our magic, was the old magic. We were directly linked to Yggdrasil. That is why I have the golden patterns on my skin. I am a part of Yggdrasil, the tree of life, without me the tree weakens, as does other magic in all the realms.”

Loki stared at him in shock for a moment, before Tony continued, “It’s why Odin knew I was dying the first time Freya tried to kill me, with the bullets, because he felt the magic growing weaker. Before the war magic was an even more formidable force than it is now, with so many of my people alive. It is nothing but a spark now of what it used to be.”

“So” Loki said slowly, “You are the last member of the species which kept track of the old magics, kept magic users in line, and stopped them from stealing power from Yggdrasil, to stop things like black holes and places like the void from coming about?”

“Essentially yes.” Tony said, “The void was a product of the war. So many of my people dying all at once, that is what it created.”

Loki let out a low whistle, and Tony laughed quietly. “Yeah, I know. Impressive right?”

“In simple terms you are the most powerful being alive right at this moment.” Loki said, it sounded more of a statement than a question.

“Aside from my brother. But he’s done so many things to his own DNA I’m not even sure _what_ he is anymore.”

“So you are then?”

“Well, when you put it like that, then yes, I suppose so.”

Loki’s grin became smug, as he rolled and moved to lay with his head resting on his forearms which in turn were crossed over Tony’s chest. “And I had you screaming my name not an hour ago.”

Tony laughed, a full bellied laugh that Loki could feel through his chest, “Watch your ego now liesmith.” Tony muttered, “It doesn’t need to be any bigger.”

Loki grinned before moving his head forward and pressing their lips together.

 

OOOO

 

As Tony sat at the table, the other avengers and Loki eating breakfast around him, he sent out his magic. The sixth realm out of nine. As he picked up his fork to take another bite of his food a piercing pain shot through his head and he let out a pained yell of surprise before he fell off his chair and onto the floor.

He vision swam with black dots momentarily before his head cleared and in the back of his mind a shining sliver of blue made itself known. _Found you._ Tony thought, triumphantly

He snapped out of his mind to feel a hand on the side of his face, Loki crouched on the floor in front of him and the other avengers looking on with concern.

“What is it?” Loki asked, clearly thinking about Freya again.

“I found him.” Tony breathed out, “I found the mother fucker.”

Loki’s face went expressionless as Tony began to ramble, “If I can get within distance I’ll be able to get inside his head. We need the information Loki, of just how powerful he is and when he plans on coming. I have to go.”

Tony sprung to his feet and moved to teleport but Loki grabbed his wrist, “If you’re within distance to get inside his head isn’t he within distance to get inside yours?” Loki breathed quietly.

Tony looked him in the eye, “There’s no one else to do this Loki. You know that. I’m the only person who stands a chance of getting close enough to see. Give me 24 hours. I’ll be back by then.”

“And if you’re not?” Came Steve's voice from behind Loki

Tony turned to look at the others, “I’ll be back.” He said firmly, before meeting Loki’s eyes one more time and disappearing with a crack.

 

Niflheim was a cold place. Second only to Jotunheim. Tony wandered through the ice forest, getting closer to his brother with each step.

He appeared in a clearing, to see a small wooden house, smoke emitting from its chimney showing that someone was indeed in residence. Tony could feel his brother in the immediate vicinity. Along with another huge power source, probably whatever artefact he had found to rip a hole in the universe and send his army through to Midgard.

As he began to make his way over to the house he heard a crack behind him, Tony dropped to the ground just in time for an ice spear to go flying over his head.

On his feet in an instant Tony spun, coming face to face with his brother.

Thanos looked like hell frozen over. Literally. His eyes glowed an eerie blue, the sapphire patterns on his skin glowing in the light reflected off the ice and snow around them.

“Come and find me did you brother?” Thanos asked, his voice deep, and not at all sane.

“Obviously.” Tony muttered, concentrating on getting inside Thanos’ head.

“You know I really did believe you were dead for awhile there. And then I felt it too. The Chituari are rather amazing, their battle skills fantastic. And this second go around your precious Midgard doesn’t stand a chance.”

Tony smiled, finally having gotten inside Thanos’ head, slowly pulling apart his plan. “Oh of course, because your hired and paid for army are just so loyal to you. They won’t go running the minute they see you’re losing.”

Thanos let out an indignant yell before charging at his brother, ice in hand and magic glowing in the other palm, beginning the fight in earnest.

The fight lasted several hours, Thanos ended up with an ice-spear through his stomach and Tony had one through his shoulder, but that wouldn’t stop either of them. It ended with Thanos teleporting away with a yell of sheer frustration and Tony locked onto Loki’s magic and used that as an anchor to pull himself back to Midgard.

Tony appeared in the middle of a briefing room on one of the Shield levels of the tower, all of the avengers seated around the table. They were all out of their seats in an instant and Tony crumpled to the ground. He looked up long enough to find Thor.

“Get. Your. Father.” He managed to grit out, “Now!”

Thor took one look at his expression and nodded, before swinging his hammer and disappearing with a crack of thunder.

Steve and Loki helped him to his feet and over to a chair. Loki reached out to pull the shard of ice from his shoulder when Tony stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

“It has to come out Tony.” Loki said, his voice strained.

“I know. But you can’t touch it. None of you can. Unless you want to be a mind rat of my brothers.”

Loki immediately drew his hands back and moved to sit on the table beside Tony’s chair, facing his lover while examining the pained expression on his face.

“He’s not, inside your head is he?” Clint asked, his voice very quiet. At that the room went silent and Tony looked over at the archer, gave him a soft smile.

“No, he’s not Clint. I’m the only person alive whom he can’t mind control. As much as he tries.” With that Tony reached up and grabbed the shard, shuddering at the spike of pain it sent through his hand, before pulling it out slowly, his face screwing up in pain. Once out the shard shattered into tiny pieces which then melted wherever they landed with an ominous hissing noise.

“Ugh.” Tony muttered, “God I feel like shit.”

Loki reached out a hand from his place on the table to cup the side of Tony’s face, “You have got to stop doing this to me.” He muttered, his voice breaking in the middle, sounding wrecked, “This is the second time you’ve disappeared and come back beat all to hell. Tony please. I can’t lose you and-“

“Shhh, yeah, I’m okay princess. I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere alright?”

Loki let out a soft, pained sound from the back of his throat before surging forward and pressing his lips against Tony's, hard. 

Tony broke the kiss when he heard Natasha clear her throat. He looked over in her direction to see her hold out a hand to director Fury. Fury muttered something obscene before handing over as 50 dollar bill.

Tony laughed as Loki settled back to his position on the table, “Who bet on what?”

“Well Fury was convinced you were straight.” Natasha answered, an eyebrow raised.

Clint started laughing, as did Tony and Loki, much to Fury’s chagrin. “Was I the only one who didn't know that Tony swings both ways? He asked

Steve nodded, a grin on his face, “Pretty much sir.” Which started everyone laughing again.

The mood was quickly shattered though when Odin and Thor appeared back in the room with a loud crack. Odin took one look at Tony before immediately coming to his side.

“You’re not injured?” he asked

Tony shook his head, “Not anything that won’t heal.”

Odin nodded, “Good. Now tell me what you know.”

All of the other avengers settled into their places around the table and Odin stood next to Tony while he explained.

“Tomorrow, he plans to open a portal over New York City.” He said, gravely, “His army is considerably bigger and better prepared than last time. There’s only one option here Odin.” Tony muttered.

“Mmm, I agree.” The king said, “We need to stop it at the source.”

Tony nodded, “I’ll absorb all of my tesseracts, and draw on as much of Yggdrasil as I can, combined with your magic we should be able to do it.”

“It will create another void.” Odin muttered.

“Which I can then close off. It will be considerably smaller than the current void in-between the realms.”

Odin nodded, “Okay. I suggest the roof of your tower, it is central to the city is it not?”

“It is. I will need to go home and rest, as will you. There’s plenty of spare rooms, you can stay here until the job is done.”

Odin nodded again, “Agreed, I shall meet you there.” And with that he teleported out of the room.

The other avengers stared at Tony. “What was just decided?” Steve asked. Loki looked like he was going to be sick and Thor looked worried.

“There isn’t enough power among you lot, not including myself, to stop that army once it gets here. So we are going to stop it before it gets here. If Odin and I combine our magics to block the attempted portal from the outside and inside it will cause a magic black lash plunging everything on Thanos’s side of the portal into a void, which I will then seal.”

Fury nodded, “It sounds like a plan, and the rest of us?”

“On standby for afterwards.” Tony said, “There may be a little backlash towards us too, but the tower should be the only place affected.”

The others all nodded, and Tony wouldn’t meet Loki’s eyes. Like Odin, Thor and Loki both knew the risks of this, and they were high. Even with Tony’s connection to Yggdrasil there was a danger of the backlash being enough to kill both Tony and Odin if they didn't get their minds out fast enough.

Fury declared the meeting over and said they’d all meet on the roof of Stark tower tomorrow at midday. The avengers all filed out and Tony stood, taking Loki’s hand and pulling him into the elevator and up to the penthouse. Once there Tony moved to the bedroom, stripping down to his underwear and collapsing onto the bed.

“Do you forget that I know the possible side effects of this?” Loki asked barely restrained anger in his voice.

Tony rolled over to look at him, who was still standing in the door way. “No, I don’t forget Loki.” Tony said softly, “But I also don’t forget that you’re a genius, and you know there is no other option. Thanos must be stopped, and not just for the sake of Midgard.”

Loki let out a shuddering breath, before he made his way over to the bed, crawling in beside Tony and taking the older god in his arms, holding him tight.

“Tony, I can’t. You have to promise me that you will do everything in your power to get out. To get your mind out of there before the backlash.” Loki’s voice was shaking, as was the rest of him, He body trembling against where he held Tony.

“Loki I –“

“ _Promise me!_ ” Loki said again, almost in tears but his voice left no room for argument.

Tony moved so that he could see Loki’s face, looked him in the eyes before pressing a very soft kiss to his lips. 

“I promise.” He murmured, pulling back and snuggling back down against Loki’s chest.

Loki let out a breath and they both drifted into an uneasy sleep.

 

OOOO

 

Tony and Odin both sat on the rooftop of Stark tower. The other avengers seated around them in a loose, watchful circle. Tony looked over to Loki, who was analysing the golden patterns on Tony’s face like he might never see them again, the expression on his face made Tony’s breath catch, before Odin reached out a hand. Tony took it in his own and they both felt the pull as the air above Stark tower began to ripple as Thanos tried to open a gateway and unleash a literal hell upon Midgard.

Tony and Odin both slipped into their minds, joining their thoughts and magic and conscious’s on the magic plane, completely losing all concept of a physical being.

As the energy gathered above them they pushed back, Odin using every ounce of his strength, and Tony pulling on as much of Yggdrasil as he dared, while used the energy of the rest of his tesseracts. 

They both heard an ear shattering roar from the other side of where they were directing their energy, and then there was a pause. Like the building up of pressure, a slow bubble waiting to burst. Tony could feel it, their magic swelling in the entrance that Thanos was trying to create. 

With a bang that sounded ear piercingly loud on the magic plane the build up of magic backfired. Tony felt it as a hole was ripped between the realms and his brother and his army were sucked into it. He felt Odin remove himself from the Magic plane and back into his physical form, his part in this now done

Tony still had work to do though. With the last of his energy he reached out and sealed that second void shut, keeping the remaining Chituari and Thanos trapped for the rest of eternity, in a never ending black hole.

Tony felt himself begin to fade, blacking taking over everything, and as he opened his eyes he looked down in time to see the reactor go black and to feel the searing pain in his chest before he passed out.

It can’t have been more than a few minutes later that he gasped awake, the reactor whirring to life in his chest and Loki’s face hovering in his vision.

“Oh thank fuck” Loki breathed, before pressing a hard kiss to Tony’s mouth.

A few moments later and Loki pulled back, “I thought I’d lost you for a minute there, I had to boost the reactor with some of my magic. My god NEVER do that to me again.”

Tony laughed breathlessly, before pulling him down for another quick kiss. When he pulled back he sat up and looked over at Odin, still seated across from him, a soft smile on his face.

“We did it.” Tony breathed.

“We did.” Odin smiled, “After some rest I shall return home. You need to sleep Tony, you’ve worn out your magic too many times in the past few weeks. You need at least three days worth of sleep.”

Tony smiled, “With everything that involved almost dying or a threat to Midgard out of the way that sounds bloody wonderful.”

The other avengers all laughed and Loki gathered Tony’s weak for into his arms and teleported them both to the bedroom

 

OOOO

 

Tony settled against Loki, the younger god wrapping his arms around him and pulling him tight against his chest. Tony looked up with a smile, pressing his lips against Loki’s softly before pulling back far enough to breath, “You didn’t lose me, just like I said you wouldn’t.”

Loki laughed a little breathlessly, before bringing a hand up to trace the patterns on Tony’s face. “I think I may have actually gone crazy if I had.” He muttered, and Tony leaned forward, pressing their lips together again, a soft smile on his face.

“I love you.” Loki murmured against his lips.

Tony froze against him and Loki pulled back to look at his face. The older god was looking at him with such an expression of shock that Loki raised an eyebrow, trying to feign nonchalance while his heart hammered away in his chest.

“What? I do.” He said softly.

“I don’t think anyone has ever said that too me before and meant it.” Tony muttered, still staring at him, eyes a little too wide for his expression to be called blank.  
It hit Loki then, just how old Tony was. And the god wasn’t lying, no one had ever said it to him and meant it. Ever. That meant even his parents. Perhaps his daughter, but it wasn’t the same. At least Loki had Odin and Frigga and Thor. Perhaps he hadn’t believed them for a little while but he did now, and he did before the Jotunheim incident, they loved him and he them. And suddenly, with fierce determination, Loki decided that if Tony had never heard that from anyone before, in his several eons of life, then he was sure as hell going to hear it from Loki. Often.

Loki leaned down to capture his lips again, the kiss hard, before pulling back to look Tony in the eye, “Then perhaps you need it hear it more often, From someone who means it.”

Tony laughed, only a little breathlessly, before pulling Loki down again to connect their mouths and rolling them so he was on top.

“I love you, I love you, I love you.” Loki muttered, repeatedly, against his lips.

Tony pulled back, grinning now, the gold in his eyes burning bright, “And I love you, you insufferable, stunning, absolutely ridiculous idiot.”

Loki laughed, his grin as large as Tony’s, before pulling their mouths back together and losing them both in a blissfully happy haze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what did you think? I hope you enjoyed it, and thankyou for sticking with me throughout the crazy musing of my imagination :)  
> There will definitely be more from me, and possibly a sequel to this, i'm not really sure yet, theres alot i can do. So I hope you all stick around to see where it goes  
> Cheers, and thankyou my lovely readers!  
> x


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